Uchiha Fukurou
by ToBetasered
Summary: Uchiha Fukurou was conceived when at the same moment, in another universe, Old Man Potter died.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Births, Beginnings and Foretidings...**

* * *

Uchiha Fukurou was conceived when at the same moment, in another universe, Old Man Potter died. The death of the retired Minister for Magic was met with widespread grief and yes, in some circles, jubilation. The birth of the former however, went largely unremarked. His mother perished due to blood loss at childbirth. Born into a time of conflict, his father had been killed months before in one of the many skirmishes that would presage the start of the Third Shinobi War.

He was accepted into the household of his father's younger brother and his new guardians loved him as if he were their own child. No one else in the Uchiha Clan cared much for the orphan either way, for he was just one of many and in the eyes of some, not particularly worthy of note. This was due to the fact that although Fukurou was unusually bright for his age, at least according to his adopted parents, the boy had inherited his mother's eyes rather than his father's. Eyes that were an oddly vibrant green hue so unlike the dark, flinty grey of his kin. The odds of him becoming a sharingan wielder were judged to be abysmally low and as such, the interest from his clan's elders was minimal.

This was hardly what he imagined the next great adventure to be like. There was a moment of peace, relief even, as all his burdens drifted away and the little accumulated aches and pains of mortal existence faded to nothing. His soul found its way to the pure world a white void where he existed for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, he remembered… something… It was peaceful anyway, being dead was the most relaxing thing imaginable.

Harry's last hour had been spent in a state of contentment as he prepared for sleep, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all alive and merry. Almost as if in contrast, his awakening had been unpleasant and chaotic. Harry found himself greatly weakened and his mind muzzy as hands lifted him bodily, jostling him about. His mind recoiled from contact with this, impure world he found himself in, smelling of sweat and blood. His last conscious memory of that time was of a warm embrace and a tired voice that proclaimed...

"Fukurou, his name is Uchiha Fukurou."

* * *

Uchiha Fukurou opened his eyes with a quiet sigh, thinking of his predicament served only to confuse him. He had awoken before dawn as was his habit, had been his habit… in another life and this one as well. He folded his futon and carefully put it away. Today, he would be attending the Shinobi Academy an issue that he had mixed feelings on. On one hand, he would be getting free basic education and possibly insight into the magic of this world. On the other hand, free basic education included knowing the best ways to kill someone with a trowel- _sorry kunai_.

This world that he had found himself in, or to be more specific, had been reincarnated into; was one where the threat of war was only a skirmish or two away from breaking out. While admittedly the scale of the conflicts was pathetically small compared to world of his past life, he was in the unique position of being groomed into a child soldier of sorts. From what he understood, small or not, as a shinobi those conflicts would inevitably involve _him_.

After a bath and a mild struggle with his hair, Fukurou made his way into the family kitchen where his aunt Yuriko was already preparing for the day. The six year old drew up a low bench and stood upon it next to his aunt who greeted him with a fond smile. In another life perhaps, Fukurou may have resented having morning chores like helping with the cooking. Now, though, he worked with a smile. The teapot simmered as he chopped leafy vegetables under his aunt's watchful eye.

This had started a year earlier, with the then five year old sitting down to watch his aunt prepare for the day. Little by little he had helped her out, fetching things from the cupboards and such. Eventually, there was no opposition to him using the stove or holding a knife while Aunt Yuriko was there with him. With Uncle Danjo often on deployment, Aunt Yuriko often spent her days working about the house and caring for Fukurou. She often worried about her husband and tried to mask that worry by playing 'ninja' with him. Fukurou couldn't help but feel for the woman and so did what he could to help out with the chores; her nephew's level-headedness had allowed it to pass into routine. Aunt Yuriko ended up kissing the blushing boy and called him a _darling child_. He found that being appreciated was nice.

The commencement ceremony had been an interesting affair. Uncle Danjo made it back in time to stand for him among the crowd of parents. While the young, new Hokage gave the opening speech Fukurou's eyes glanced about. Standing at the head of the row, to the left was the son of the current clan head, Itachi. The boy's father, Fugaku had spoken to his Uncle for a time and spared a few curt words in Fukurou's general direction. Itachi had been silent throughout the meeting though seeming curious about this cousin he hadn't yet met. Now the boy stood listening with seeming impassiveness to the Yondaime. Fukurou felt pity for him, the pressure of being the son of the clan head probably wasn't an easy load to bear. The whispered comments about the boy had been nostalgic.

Fukurou's own reticence was due to his wish not to draw undue attention to his unusual mental maturity. From overheard conversations between his guardians, he hadn't been quite successful. Fortunately it was brushed off as his heritage as a ninja showing through, a far more likely scenario than being a one hundred and fifty year old wizard from another dimension, reincarnated in the body of a child. Practicing occlumency helped him keep in character; and it also seemed to reduce the bouts of disorientation that he at times experienced upon awakening, when dreams of a lifetime of magic fled from his eyes.

In the end Fukurou decided that he would become a ninja. Assignment to the Military Police Forces was a common career for Uchiha shinobi and one that suited Fukurou's sensibilities. He did, technically, have a lifetime of experience in law enforcement after all. Furthermore, Fukurou had never quite shed Harry Potter's 'Saving People Thing' this option allowed for a less morally ambiguous lifestyle than that of a common ninja. With that in mind, for the next year Fukurou devoted himself to training and learning about the world he now lived in.

* * *

It was the Genin Exams...

"Next! Uchiha, Fukurou!"

Fukurou stepped forward and eyed the targets arrayed before him. His hand-eye coordination had grown ever keener with the perfect eyesight that this body afforded. Ten targets, he aimed, drew a breath and in a fluid movement threw the weapons as he exhaled. Ten bulls-eyes, he picked up the practice shuriken and did it again. It was a perfect score. Awed whispers followed him on the way back to stand with his fellows and he fell into an occlumency based impassivity to kill a blush before it showed on his pale cheeks. The name Uchiha was bandied about before a hush fell. Everyone knew what was coming next.

"Uchiha, Itachi!"

Fukurou closed his eyes in contemplation, already knowing the result from the sound of metal sinking into wood. Occlumency was helpful not just in organizing his mind but the practice of it left him in firm control of his emotions. He'd been at home when the Nine-Tails had attacked. Just like that, at six and a half, Fukurou had been orphaned again. Losing family that he loved and remembered fondly was crushing. Fukurou took up residence in an apartment above the shop of another relative who worked outside the main compound. He paid for it using the village fund for orphans attending the shinobi academy. It had taken some convincing to get his way but Fukurou's sheer stubbornness had won him his independence.

The Senbei store owner and his wife hadn't given up entirely in wanting to care for him but Fukurou's new loss made him leery of familial connections. Instead, he focused on his training, with particular interest in assessing what magical skills he had retained from his life as Harry Potter. In the privacy of his second floor apartment he scoured his mind, using occlumency to help dredge up details of the spells he had known. Occlumency also helped him deal with his grief, his older self had lost many friends to conflict and time, reviewing his memories of both lives placed things into perspective and his own experience gave him hope that Uncle Danjo and Aunt Yuriko were having a merry time wherever in the hereafter that they'd moved onto.

"Uchiha Fukurou!"

He stepped into room and immediately felt the tickle of mental magic, a component of what people of this world called chakra, touch upon his shields. As an Occlumens, recognizing and defeating genjutsu was child's play. The world tried to distort around him, and a burst of illusionary flame sprung into existence, transparent and ghostly figures and terrain surrounded him. He ignored it all and clasped his hands as a sharp burst of chakra dispelled the illusion before the door was even closed.

"Kai!"

He turned then to watch his grinning sensei mark down something on a clipboard.

"Well done, Fukurou-kun! Send in your cousin after you leave."

As he left, he heard the excited murmurs.

"_Once in a lifetime prodigy, huh?"_

In the year since the death of his uncle and aunt, more and more of his relatives had moved back into the clan compound. Doing so might have been unavoidable for Fukurou if it wasn't for the modified Fidelus Seal he placed on the ruins of an abandoned cottage he'd found out in the village outskirts. As he had yet to develop a sharingan and wasn't really expected to, little interest was paid to his comings and goings. That wasn't entirely true but Uncle Teyaki had declared Fukurou an adult in the eyes of the clan when the latter mastered the Grand Fireball technique his uncle had taught him. Learning the skill had been a condition for gaining permission to live on his own, he was sure his uncle had expected it to take longer for him to master the technique but the man ruefully kept his word.

He'd still only been an adolescent after all.

A clearing in the woods near his home had served as a training ground. He'd tentatively mastered the academy jutsu and worked upon his own skills tirelessly. A habit gained from a lifetime in law enforcement made sure that he trained both body and mind. He held off on trying to apparate, though he had a good feeling that he still could do it. In spite of the interchangeable way that he internally referred to magic and chakra, the two weren't exactly the same thing.

Anyone in this world could use chakra to a degree, compared to the fraction of magic adept people from the world of his past. Also using 'too much' magic left one exhausted but it didn't kill or shorten a person's lifespan as he'd learned of chakra exhaustion in the academy. Apparently apparition was very different from the high speed movement that he'd seen some shinobi use, teleportation was a high-level time space manipulation technique vaguely described in a few Clan history texts that spoke about the Yondaime. He didn't want to try something and not have it work, or worse. He very much doubted that this world's medical technology would be able to save him from a bad splinching.

"-and Itachi, step into the ring."

Fukurou couldn't help the pit that grew in his stomach at the announcement although he really should have seen it coming. The two students that had blazed through the war-time three year academy curriculum in one year were a natural measuring stick for each other. The two boys stepped forward and faced each other in a chalk ring drawn on tight-packed earth. They watched each other closely with matching looks of apathy as the examiner prepared to call the match. While Itachi had been heavily tutored, Fukurou got by with a lifetime's worth of experience, adapted with academy taijutsu instruction to the dimensions of a smaller body.

Itachi blurred forward with a punch, it was an opening move that often caught his year-mates off guard. The punch was a feint and Fukurou slapped the first fist aside when he caught the other as it tried to slip in under his guard. The two boys broke apart and began to circle each other warily. This wasn't an ideal fight for Fukurou, Itachi was a natural at hand to hand combat with skills that had been expertly polished for a genin. Fukurou had grown adept enough at taijutsu to beat other older, students but he preferred mid to long range combat, a vestige of his experiences as a wizard.

They had both been taught in the academy, the basic uses of chakra. Simply asking the right questions of clansmen had netted them each chakra exercises meant to build up control. As he had aged, Harry had learned to use magic to mildly enhance his old body as a means to deal with the rigors of time. These memories allowed Fukurou, with minor instruction in chakra control techniques, to enhance his speed and power. Such was Itachi's genius that the other boy understood and started replicating what Fukurou was doing in the middle of the third exchange of blows. Fukurou had spent months practicing the more impressive moves that Itachi recreated in seconds.

Still, regardless of what he had been, Fukurou's body was nonetheless that of a young, well trained ninja. He rolled under a high kick and slapping a hand against the earth, tried to kick the other boy's leg out from under him. Itachi used his momentum to make a small hop that led to him artfully kicking out at Fukurou's head again. Catching the boy's foot in both hands, Fukurou huffed as he pushed Itachi off. His opponent flipped to the ground and dug in his heels as the two boys performed a leaping kick and met in midair. Itachi and Fukurou struck each other and harshly they shot apart, hitting the ground and rolling the boys came to a stop and leapt to their feet, ready to do more violence.

"Winner, Uchiha Itachi."

The two looked confused for a moment before nodding. Fukurou looked down and saw that he was outside the ring. Itachi gave a rare smile and tapped the corner of his eye. Fukurou blinked away the slight stinging sensation that he had thought was sweat getting into his eyes. The chunin examiner whispered softly, staring at Fukurou's face, "Sharingan…" He uttered.

* * *

Fukurou nudged his forehead protector, not quite yet used to the feel of it. The academy yard was filled with students and parents. Some cried excitedly, others quietly left while crying. Uchiha Fugaku awaited him at the academy gate, Itachi standing to one side. Fukurou respectfully greeted the head of his clan. The greeting, this time was far less curt and the boy politely waited to see what the older man wanted though he desperately wished to find Uncle Teyaki and tell him the good news.

Fugaku quickly got to the point, "Itachi tells me that you have come into your heritage, I'm wondering if you could show me."

Fukurou had had only a few minutes to test out the activation of his bloodline after his first, accidental display. It took him a moment of concentration, but from the sudden _sharp_ clarity of his vision he knew what it was that Fugaku and Itachi saw. A single tomoe swirled about each pupil as his green iris turned blood red. Normally showing one's sharingan was construed as a silent threat, but he was simply following the other man's command. The dark grey eyes that he gazed into seemed impassive but suddenly Fukurou knew Fugaku's thoughts, felt the man's surprise and resolve to pay closer attention the this child that stood before him. Fukurou saw an image of Itachi and another boy seemingly deep in conversation.

"_Perhaps, Shisui and Itachi aren't such lonely prodigies after all?"_

The shock of having another's mental voice echo within his own mind caused him to flinch and stop the doujutsu abruptly. Fugaku spoke with slight concern, "For one so young to awaken the sharingan is quite an achievement but be careful in its use. The drain of the doujutsu may take some time to get used to. Please feel free to make use of the clan training fields in your free time. I'm sure you'll find many of our clansmen willing to help in your training. I expect great things of you Fukurou-kun."

To Itachi the man simply said, in a meaningful tone, "And of you as well my son."

Fukurou stood watching their retreating backs, feeling as though he'd been pulled into something... inescapable.

* * *

**AN: Been a while since I've posted here, I wanted to try out a few new writing tactics and get into the flow of things. I haven't actually stopped writing so much as I've been working on improving my practices. This is more in the style of short, hopefully, well written chapters.**

**TTFN.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Owls, Eyes and Copy Wheels**

* * *

He closed the scroll and set it down. Within it was a coded log of Fukurou's experiments in magic and chakra. The words were written in Welsh so even if someone understood the symbols, unlikely given that no one here even used the Roman alphabet, the vocabulary and grammatical rules were too complex to figure out just from simple observation. To mix things up a bit he'd also used a sharingan specific jutsu that his cousins had taught him, a nameless technique that inscribed messages visible only to sharingan users... and he wrote it in Pig Latin.

He had deemed that magic was a similar power to chakra, though from his experiments, it proved not to be exactly the same thing. Fukurou found that by manipulating his chakra he could still perform some simple magical spells wandlessly, mostly they were the types of spells that he'd been so familiar with in his past life that he hadn't needed a focus to cast them anymore. Some were useless in battle, like a spell that kept his shoes laced and fly zipped but others, like the one that made his footsteps, and anything within a few centimeters of his body soundless, had potential. However; anything more than the simple everyday spells that he had been able to effortlessly cast as an old and powerful wizard remained out of his reach without a wand.

He had ideas about how he could circumvent that requirement, several actually. His sharingan flashed as he filed another idea away for later, success would depend on learning more about this world. Movement in the night sky drew his attention and he narrowed his eyes and thought of the effect that he wanted. Activating his sharingan and focusing out the cottage window, Fukurou concentrated. Out there from where he could see from his bedroom window was a sliver of night sky.

The tomoe in each eye lazily swirled as they increased the clarity of Fukurou's vision. There, in the night, a hunting bird flew. Its thoughts were primitive, little more than a jumble of instincts from his perspective but he could sense a clear purpose behind the creature's actions. He could _see_ the fine threads of chakra emanating from his eyes and feel the mind of the bird as if it were a warm thing nestled in his hands. He saw what it saw as it flew through the night sky, _his_ wings cut the air, _her_ eyes searched the world for prey, _their_ hearts accelerated as they spotted movement on the ground.

**_He/she stooped and dove. Their wings silent on the air, her/his eyes locked onto the small moving body, unblinking even as the air rushed over their heads. Suddenly, their wings flared open, the prey/food startled a moment too late as his/her talons dug in. The force of the landing, even with her/his wings taking up most of the strain, was enough to break their prey's back. His/her hooked beak darted in, tearing, then again, swallowing it whole. They looked up at the night sky and flew, finding joy in the simple pleasure of the act, and a full belly. They needed a place to land though, to let their meal settle, a safe place…_**

Fukurou came to himself sweating, with a grey, confused-looking, female owl roosting on his window ledge…

The owl burbled warningly as his hand reached out but calmed when it met his eyes. Fukurou nearly crooned from the sensation that he'd experienced. He began to run his hand over the creature as he observed it closely with affection. It seemed as though the sharingan that he possessed greatly enhanced his legilimency, serving as both a focus and amplifier. That thought gave him pause and Fukurou began to focus on changing the grey speckled feathers to white. His eyes began to itch slightly and the hue of the bird's wings did seem to grow lighter.

The owl however also became more agitated, so much so that he stopped for fear that he might be hurting it. His eyes too began to ache, Fukurou berated himself internally as he ignored the sensation. As an apology of sorts, he focused on the wandless spell with which he had been most familiar and the soft tapping of claws upon the sill and even the rustle of feathers grew fainter. As he watched the bird fly off with a quiet hoot of relief, Fukurou sat back in contemplation.

* * *

His teammates were Yamanaka Hiko, and a quiet girl called Aburame Shigure. Their sensei was a jounin-level kunoichi named Chun Chu. A first glance showed them to be extremely well balanced and not just on paper. Hiko, was of those people who seemed to be always too cheerful. He placed thirty-eight out of thirty-nine in the class roster and seemed optimistic about his chances as a genin even if the one non-academy jutsu that he knew, a clan ninjutsu, was a skill that he utterly sucked at.

As far as Fukurou could tell, Hiko's attitude didn't seem to be a façade to hide his true feelings. The boy honestly seemed to think that things would sort themselves out in time. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but the village was in a bad position strategically according to talk in the Uchiha district. More shinobi were needed to complete missions as a measure to show other countries that Konoha was not vulnerable to hostile action with the death of the Yondaime. The ranks of the police forces were even being tapped for out of village missions. Fukurou doubted if such an attitude would serve Hiko well in the long run.

Shigure was as gloomy as Hiko was cheerful. She was often quiet unless pressed for an opinion, which often proved to be something cynical or depressing. Her class rank was slightly lower than average. He couldn't tell much more than that as the girl rarely spoke, or did anything unless prodded to. She simply sat there, gloomy. He did get the sense that there was more to her than that, if she ever said more than five words.

As for Fukurou himself, his apathetic demeanor proved immune to Hiko's joking manner and Shigure's cynicism. Itachi and he had placed first and second in the academy respectively, they were ranked far and beyond third place. In essence Fukurou and Itachi could have been placed interchangeably on the team, the skills of either would have brought Team Chun Chu to the required level of a genin team.

* * *

Their Jounin instructor had informed them of an extra test and required they pass it by retrieving a scroll from her person. In Fukurou's experience, she was assigning them a seemingly impossible task for their genin exam, at least if his older uncles and aunts were a measure to judge this jounin by. His past life gave him a several clues about what was really going on. He'd used a similar method to improve the fieldwork of new aurors assigned to groups. The question was getting the others to follow his lead. He needn't have worried. On suggesting they work together Hiko had cheerfully agreed, believing their plan would work. Shigure had sought them out because she couldn't come up with a plan that she thought had a chance.

Chun Chu sensei had been impressed, sort of. Hiko had fudged the mind transfer jutsu at the last second, hitting Shigure with it instead as the girl hid in a tree while trying to herd their sensei into position with Fukurou's help. She'd nearly taken a nasty spill with Hiko along for the ride when their sensei saved them, only to notice the scroll in Fukurou's hands. He'd snatched it from her at the last second with a desperate summoning charm as she used shunshin to catch his team mate.

His sensei looked at him with an unreadable expression. He didn't have the chakra left after the short but intense battle with her to use his sharingan to get a proper reading. Tonelessly, she told him, "So it looks like Fukurou-kun gets a pass while the two screw ups fail." She ignored the pair of downcast looks sent her way from Hiko and Shigure. "Tell me Fukurou-kun what do you think the point of this test was?"

Desperately hoping this wasn't the endurance against long odds test and struggling to control his breathing he answered her slowly, "Those two screw ups," -_Hey__!__-_"Worked with me to get the scroll from you just as I'd have to work with them if I want to survive in the shinobi world." He said with growing confidence, "The point of this test was to see if we can work together to achieve a goal that would be impossible for any one of us alone." He held up the scroll and with a breath, tossed it to her, "If we could make that choice even with incentive to go it alone, then we could make it on the field where going alone would kill us rather than send us back to the academy for another year."

Hiko seemed nonplussed at the talk of getting killed in the field but Chun Chu looked from Fukurou to the scroll before smiling brightly. "I've got a cute little girl at home waiting for me," She said, "I want to make it back home just as much as you do Fukurou-kun." Pocketing the scroll, she took in the rest of her genin, "Let's make sure that happens, O.K.? You pass."

And that was the start of team Chun Chu.

* * *

Three weeks of D-ranks later and a clear pattern had emerged. They would be given a D-rank mission in the morning and sometimes would have the time to complete another one by mid day. Hiko would be cheerful even if the assignment was unclogging a toilet at the academy, which was nasty work as sometimes a student would rig a cherry-bomb in the water. Shigure would say something cynical and depressing even if the assignment was gardening, which Fukurou could tell that she enjoyed.

Fukurou himself wouldn't say anything at all that didn't help them complete the mission faster. Unclogging toilets, painting fences and yard-work had been a matter of course for Harry Potter back in the hazily remembered days of his youth. His older more pragmatic self suggested that this make-work was a preferable alternative to fighting for his life from past experience. Learning how to kill with a trowel/kunai had been bad enough.

From just after mid day to evening would be spent training their basic shinobi skills with Chun Chu sensei. Their sensei had a two year old daughter to raise so sometimes they would get time off for the day which they each spent in their own way. Fukurou spent most of his time adapting his layman's knowledge of warding to fuinjutsu. At times either Itachi or his older cousin Shisui would approach him so they could spar together and test out their sharingan. Fukurou had developed two tomoe in each eye and Itachi was well on the way to mastering his with two tomoe in his left eye and one in his right.

Their cousin Shisui would give them pointers on ways to use their techniques effectively. He quite favored using a form of ocular hypnotism to cast multiple small illusions that altered little things like depth perception or where he was situated relative to his opponent. They were easy to undo but hard to detect. With Shisui's non-sharingan related talents, his strength and speed were high for a chunin, it was a fiendishly difficult tactic to counter.

Fukurou learned a lot from those sessions and he made note of Shisui's use of minor jutsu for his own battle tactics. He often used his sharingan to call down birds, usually owls that lived near his home since this part of his training was often done at night and hopefully in secret. He wasn't enthused with the idea of fighting for a living but it was becoming clear he'd need to learn how to do so if he wished to someday make his own way in the world.

There were bounties on every Uchiha that had gained the Sharingan and the clan tried to pull together. He'd dodged questions about his living arrangements by giving a vague location to Uncle Teyaki who, along with the rest of his clan, was convinced that he'd taken up residence in an unused training ground because he enjoyed bird watching too much to stay in the compound. There was a sort of awkward bemusement now when most looked at him, the odd bird Uchiha that lived in the woods. Fukurou didn't mind, fielding strange looks from people who thought him crazy was old hat to Harry Potter.

A month after becoming genin, Team Chun Chu took on their first C-Rank mission.

* * *

**AN: This pace works because I can write a plot outline for the chapter in a few minutes, flesh it out a little and then a day later flesh it out again. What you're reading is the fourth or fifth iteration. Short chapters though, if you want them fast.**

**TTFN**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Nosy Cousins, Fictional Bows and Miserly Headsmen**

* * *

Fugaku was sitting at the Uchiha Senbei shop that relocated to the clan district with some of the clan elders. He looked up when he saw Shisui arrive at the gate, frowning distractedly. The younger man paused when he saw the collection of older ninja looking at him expectedly. At length, Fugaku sighed.

"So he got you too huh?" He said.

Shisui seemed even more confused, "Um, Fugaku-sama what are you…"

An irritated-looking old woman interrupted him. It seemed she'd lost some money, "You were supposed to follow your cousin Fukurou to his home and report back to us."

Shisui blinked, then he blinked again and his eyes widened slowly, "Ah! Michiru-sama, I'm sorry!" He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "I was able to follow Fukurou-kun as far as the Kokoro Forest when I remembered I had something really important to do today!"

The elders watched as Shisui bowed in apology, then after a while the one who seemed to have won the bet with Michiru asked him, "What was so important that it couldn't wait... for a mission from your clan?"

Shisui brightened, "Well today I'm going to start a… toenail… clipping… collection?"

Towards the end it sounded more like a question, one that the boy had just begun to ask himself.

With a sigh, Fugaku told the him go home and get some rest, the other three seemed to get better by the next day.

"So even Shisui fell for his technique, whatever it is..." Fugaku muttered.

"First was a phony ninja triathlon, second was re-indexing non-existent hentai-jutsu at the clan library," An amused Teyaki listed, "Then he tricked Itachi-kun into asking Neko-Baa to give him the Birds and Bees Talk."

Fugaku shuddered. He was still fielding the fallout from that incident from both wife and son. What the hell had that old lady told Itachi anyway? And why was Mikoto angry with _Him_?

"Toenail clippings… He's not even trying anymore," Michiru sighed in exasperation. She looked at Fugaku sternly, "No matter what happens that kind of talent cannot be lost!"

Fugaku nodded stiffly, "I'll talk to the others…"

* * *

Fukurou's self-study was stymied by the increasing interest from his clansmen into his whereabouts. He was often followed and the situation was quickly becoming annoying. He used a lesson from his past life when he had wanted to keep others at a distance, he talked to birds in plain view of his watchers, collected bottle caps, did what the hell ever he wanted without concern for what his clan thought of him... with a perfect, occlumency maintained, poker face. He channeled Luna Scamander a lot in conversations with Fugaku, the man never, _ever_ got to the point of asking Fukurou about his living arrangements.

Even though his clan thought him odd, they still made a concerted effort to bring him into the fold. About half his clansmen were sharingan users, and fewer still showed the same kind of potential that Shisui, Itachi and Fukurou did. There was always a sense of pride when others spoke of them, even him, the eccentric bird guy. He wouldn't have known about the followers if it weren't for the defenses around his Fidelus Seal.

The key part of the seal was the bit that substituted for a secret keeper, allowing the user to stay at a home that only he or she knew the location of. The downside was that it wasn't possible to hide the Keeper runes within the secret that it kept. For reasons both practical and due to certain arithmantic impossibilities that Hermione had explained to him and he _still_ didn't fully understand, the secret needed to be written in a manner that the one who cast the spell clearly understood and found unambiguous.

The seal also couldn't be obscured in any way or hidden…technically. Given that the paper seal could not defend itself from readers or refuse to speak, the elegant solution that Hermione had taught him was to use a second Fidelus Seal on the location of the first Secret Keeper. Essentially He was keeping a secret of a secret. And since he spoke a language that no one in the Elemental Nations seemed to know, there was no problem with him leaving the location of the second seal out in the open if he ever brought a guest into his home. It was disguised as a work of art.

It was the aversion and confundus seals on the path that lead to his home that his trackers had tripped. He didn't want people figuring out that the location of his home by inference. It had been quite a shock when one of his Uncles suddenly began counting off jumping jacks, especially when another jounin in green spandex joined in. After the third time he'd been so startled by a family member, he cottoned on to the fact that it wasn't a fluke.

He was always running into Aunts and Uncles who were willing to let him in to stay the night. He found that his trackers gave him a little more leeway when he wasn't disappearing for long periods of time and so accepted the offers. They were his clan and Fukurou felt no need to alienate himself from them. However, he'd had this kind of attention before as Harry Potter and as Minister for Magic, he knew what would happen if he let himself become a tool of others rather than his own person. Even if it was his family he wanted no part of that. Truly, he pitied Itachi.

He did welcome the positive attention from his cousins, the younger ones more than the older. The children his age and higher were people who had paid him no mind in the past, some had even been downright mean. Now that the elders thought Fukurou held value as an Uchiha, suddenly parents were pushing their children to 'make friends of the right sort'. It was an attitude Fukurou detested, that a few of his older female cousins seemed to take the _'make friends'_ part the wrong way was just plain disturbing. There was a sort of dawning horror at the realization that as a half-blood, he was _expected_ to marry into his own family.

Still, Fukurou couldn't help but dote on his younger cousins. There were a lot of them and at times they reminded him of a batch of hungry chicks, eager to see his sharingan and ask when they'd get their own. He mainly wound up acting as a babysitter for the parents who he stayed with. Those aunts and uncles that had kids were grateful for the extra set of hands and eyes he provided so the offers weren't all contrived. He spent his time training with his peers, learning fire jutsu and in weapons training with Chun Chu-sensei.

* * *

Chun Chu-sensei, started working with them on basic weapons training after their third week of training. She was an expert user of a variety of ninja tools and there was a ninja supply store in the village that she co-owned and managed with her husband, a local blacksmith. Fukurou already had academy instruction in the use of steel wire, kunai, shuriken, flash tags, paper bombs and makibishi. His family also taught him about different shuriken variants. Chun Chu not only worked on their field craft by teaching more advanced trap making skills and survival techniques, she also expanded her genin's familiarity with a variety of weaponry.

The most basic shinobi weapon was the kunai. It was a sort of primitive multi tool useful for everything from killing to digging up roots and tubers. The broad flat blade was strong enough to use as an entrenching tool, could be sharpened into a spearhead or knife for use as either a weapon or a utensil. It could serve as a tent stake, a handhold while climbing and any number of the hundreds of uses that their sensei taught them; and yes, it could serve as a trowel.

Chun Chu introduced her team to the ninjatō and tantō, she familiarized them with the basics of using the weapons. They were generic blades, re-forged from scrap metal and broken swords in bulk to provide a cheaply disposable weapon that could be put to rugged use much like a kunai would and disposed of without worry that the weapon would betray the identity of a ninja's village. For smaller shinobi like Fukurou and Shigure, the weapons added to their reach and versatility. Hiko also benefitted simply from having a fall back option and proved to be surprisingly talented.

As part owner, Chun Chu got her team weapons for free. Hiko and Shigure practiced with ninjatō. Hiko fell into a style of flashy but effective aerial slashes that had their sensei shaking her head. Shigure began developing combat tactics that used her weapon to up her personal threat level, while preparing to ambush her opponent with kikaichu. It was an especially effective strategy since she didn't need to use hand seals for the basic Aburame jutsu or for simply directing her kikaichu to a certain location.

Fukurou practiced with a tantō that was easy to conceal but he'd found a more fitting weapon for his combat preference in a composite bow that had been on display. The small recurve bow wasn't a really popular sell and the one on display had just been a showpiece. It was functional though. This model was actually made from a backing of thin, laminated bands of spring steel, bonded to strips of specially treated wood. The project had proved a bit of a boondoggle as no one, not even Chun Chu herself could properly use the bow.

It was a compact, powerful weapon that had taken a lot of effort to create. It was also quite heavy, Chun Chu taught him how to use a simpler version of a recurve, but was doubtful that the one Fukurou wanted would be useful as a ninja tool. She was very reluctant to allow him to buy it even at full price. That lasted until he showed her what he could do with the weapon.

When most people talked about the sharingan they mentioned a user's jutsu copying ability and observational skill in that order. Fukurou's sharingan also seemed to allow an almost preternatural eye for detail at extreme ranges. Old myopic Harry could pull a snitch out of the air going at a hundred and fifty kilometers an hour. Green-eyed Fukurou could put any throwing weapon on target ten times out of ten from fifty meters away and do the same at one hundred meters if he used chakra to enhance the strength of his throws.

With the sharingan, Fukurou never missed… _ever_. After the third time he pegged a butterfly from nearly a kilometer away his sensei was sold on the idea. It took enhancing his arms with chakra to draw the bow properly and he wouldn't easily be able to make a shot like that in a forest but Fukurou was getting some fiendish ideas when he thought about enchanting the bow and the arrows that he used to be soundless, unbreakable and the like. From the looks of his sensei, the woman was having ideas of her own.

It was after that lesson that Team Chun Chu took on their first C-rank mission. They were to protect a delivery of rice from Ogawa, a town in the north-west of Fire Country that had enough concerns about the security of the shipment to hire ninja as backup for their guards. Meeting at the village gates, they made their way north through the forests that surrounded their home. For an unencumbered ninja moving at a moderate pace, the village was a day and a half away. Giving her group rest breaks that Fukurou at least was secretly thankful for, Chun Chu-sensei lead her team into the headsman's office two days later with time to spare.

* * *

On arrival Fukurou quickly noticed the state of the village. He observed signs of a recent struggle, though the attitude of the children and the professionalism of the samurai that wore Hi no Kuni colors assured him that this wasn't a trap. His green eyes panned over the street and surrounding buildings noting a scorch mark on the relatively new village wall, scars from weaponry on buildings and people. He found Chun Chu-sensei had been watching him take it all in and she nodded to him imperceptibly.

The conversation between their sensei and the village headsman revealed that an attack had occurred on the village. After the upheaval of the Third Shinobi War gangs had sprung up composed of former soldiers and displaced civilians. One of these gangs had become ambitious, not satisfied preying on merchants crossing into Rice Country from Hi no Kuni, they'd been trying to scam the village into paying for protection from light raids that their own men had carried out on outlying farms.

The villagers had been preparing for the annual tax at the time and the grizzled headsman, a war veteran himself, hadn't even entertained the notion of paying another one to thieves. The shrewd old man had engineered a plan to bring in a platoon of samurai that had caught the bandits in the midst of another terror spree, this time attacking the village itself. The samurai had arrived only an hour before the raid and instead of finding a sleepy village, the night attack had turned into something of a rout. There had been several prisoners taken.

With Harry's experience as an Auror and a politician Fukurou easily puzzled out the headsman's dilemma and the solution that the man had found for it. Not knowing if the samurai would arrive on time, the man had also sent a request for a ninja escort which on arrival could be used to force the bandits into backing off. That hadn't been the end of it though. One of the prisoners taken claimed to be a relative of the bandit leader and swore up and down that his brother would take revenge.

Normally the samurai would have been allowed to execute the bandits on the spot, having caught them red-handed in an attack, with the village headsman serving as a stand in for a magistrate. The headsman had refused to do so, on the grounds that the prisoner's comrades were still at large and by having him interrogated at the garrison with an official magistrate there, what information gleaned would ensure that the bandits never attacked again.

It was sound logic, but the aged statesman in Fukurou looked at the situation in another way. The headsman worried that the bandits would attack when the samurai were gone and didn't want to pay for additional ninja to hunt down the bandits if he didn't have to. Executing the prisoners would invite an attack on his people, while sending them to a Fire Country official would lay grounds for a petition to the Daimyo, to have Konoha sweep the area for bandits as part of their mandate to protect Fire Country.

And of course, if the prisoner that wouldn't shut up was right and his brother _was_ going to attack in an attempt to free his men, better the attack not be on his village. This was assured by having the prisoners transported along with the tithe caravan. An attack after they left the fortified village was more likely then. The samurai guarded the prisoners along with the tax levy in the caravan and the ninja guarded the caravan as a whole in event of an attack. The headsman was getting a package deal, especially if the bandits were further routed in an attempt on the travelers.

It struck Fukurou as a cold thing to do, seeing as his team was basically being put in the line of fire but he reasoned that the headsman was struggling to do the best under difficult circumstances. He wagered that the tax levies were high as a measure to cover expenses incurred by the recent war. The villagers probably had little choice but to pull this act of subterfuge.

Fukurou could see that Chun Chu-sensei understood the situation, though there was little she could do that she wouldn't have done anyway. When the caravan departed, Hiko and Shigure took turns scouting the terrain for ambushes. Shigure did so using her kikaichu allies while Hiko used his mind transfer technique on a bird that Fukurou had '_tamed_'. Fukurou stood guard over Hiko's body with his composite bow and arrows out. Chun Chu-sensei seemed vanish among the wagoneers.

Predictably, the attack though expected; happened just when everyone, except perhaps Chun Chu-sensei and Shigure- who was a pessimist, thought that it wasn't going to come.

* * *

**AN: Writing the outline of the plot really helps to keep a story from meandering. Add some detail and voila, tale ready to be read, garnish with pertinent dialogue and sprinkle on a little humor to taste. For a public serving pay attention to proper grammer and spelling. A story could be fabulously delicious and still no one will try it.**

**TTFN**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Friends, Enemies and Deathly Eyes**

* * *

Uchiha clansmen Tekka and Yashiro stood at the outskirts of the Kokoro Forest. The older man was holding a map and compass while Tekka just held his reservations.

"All right," Yashiro started, "We know Fukurou-kun lives somewhere in there, let's go find his place."

Tekka still looked uncomfortable with the idea, "Yashiro," He said with thinly veiled nervousness, "Don't we have better things to do? You saw how Yakumi was. The guy did so many jumping jacks he threw out his back."

Yashiro ignored him and started walking forward as he spoke, periodically looking around with his sharingan active, "We already know that the defenses on his home activate in a specific area. If it's a static defense then we'll simply skirt around the edges and find the borders of the place that way."

Tekka was following and had his sharingan active as well, "I feel like I forgot something…"

Yashiro reached out and grabbed the man before he could walk off. He marked something on the map and led a reluctant Tekka away from the spot.

"How did you feel?" He asked the man.

Tekka seemed briefly distracted before coming to his senses, "I… wow, that must be some genjutsu. I completely forgot what I was doing for a second." He focused on the area He had been standing at with a frown." I didn't see any charka there either.

"It seems not to depend on Fukurou being around to remain active, though since you haven't spouted off about starting a stamp collection… The effect is either progressive of at a lower setting than before." Yashiro mused,

The two men moved on, catching the other when one stepped within the field of the strange, invisible barrier. Eventually they came full circle and stepped out of the trees. Yashiro was frowning at the map. Tekka was blankly staring at something in the distance.

"This doesn't make any sense…" Yashiro muttered. There was a circle on the map alright; it included a small section of forest and part of the residential area neighboring it. Only, Yashiro had seen nothing but trees when he'd been walking, trees and shrubs and none of the buildings the map said they walked by.

"Yashiro…" Tekka said slowly, "Kokoro forest is to the south of the village right, Close to the gate?"

"Yes," Yashiro answered. He looked up from the map, "What the…"

The two were standing on the Hokage Mountain about as far north as possible without leaving the village proper.

"Ah, to hell with this…" Yashiro, groused, "You're right, we've got better things to do anyway…"

"Yeah..." Tekka agreed with relief.

Then the two men began to yodel.

In his office, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up when he heard a warbling cry, "Hmm? What the heck is that?"

* * *

"What an annoying guy!" Hiko groused from where he sat with Fukurou.

Chun Chu wasn't exactly an intimidating woman at first or even second glance. Her pale skin and pink cheeks made her look like something of a china doll. The baggy clothes and jounin vest on her short and skinny frame made her seem almost childlike. Having fought her, Fukurou knew better, the samurai didn't. Unlike most of the Daimyo's forces, these men hadn't ever worked with ninja. They were basically there to enforce the local magistrate's decisions and carry out routine duties that didn't require that one be a ninja.

This was not to say that their training or professionalism was inferior. These men all came from families that had served as retainers for generations and were trained from childhood to do a job that had largely been eclipsed in worth by modern shinobi. Most samurai that had experience working with ninja at least developed a sense of professional courtesy that was lacking in Chun Chu's interactions with the samurai in charge of the detail.

On the fourth day into the trip, she had agreed with the officer in charge of the samurai that an attack seemed unlikely. The man hadn't asked her opinion however nor did he seem to take her team any more seriously than he did her. In the end Chun Chu dealt with the situation gently by ensuring her suggestions on where and when they would rest were timed perfectly. This was in part due to the scouting of Hiko and Shigure. Her suggestions were also phrased in such a way that left the man with no reason to refuse lest he seem a fool.

Playing nice seemed to backfire that day; however, when their sensei was forced to make her suggestion two hours before the traveling group normally took their rest. Neither Hiko nor Shigure could find a more secure spot than the one Chun Chu decided upon, within a day's journey. Unfortunately, the leader of the samurai guards ignored Chun Chui's advice and later settled in a clearing off the road at the base of a small cliff. The kunoichi merely shrugged and told Hiko and Fukurou to stand guard while she had Shigure help her scout the forest behind the cliff.

* * *

Fukurou heard a sharp whistling sound that he'd recently become quite acquainted with over the past week. His eyes tracked the arrow back to its source even as his body leapt into motion, tackling Hiko in the midsection an instant before the older boy would have taken a hit in his neck. The two tumbled to the ground and lay still in the shadow of a wagon. Cries of alarm rose about them and high screams filled the woods. He had a few moments to drag Hiko under the wagon and assess his state.

In the momentary glance that he had caught of the archer's position, he'd seen five men and had a moment to think, _"Sensei was right."_

He'd also seen something else, a dark silhouette that looked like an enormous spider creeping up from behind the bandit archers, to one side. He thought that it might have been Chun Chu-sensei though he'd never seen her move like that before. She reminded him of a hunting acromantula. Several loud thuds signaled the demise of the archers at the bottom of the cliff, one of whom helpfully illuminated the camp some more by rolling through the fire. Fukurou decided he had been right about Chun Chu being up there and decided to get moving.

His lips tightened as the furor about them rose in volume. Hiko was unhurt but shivering under his hands. The boy's brush with death had shocked him and the situation was only made worse when a bandit fell to the ground next the wagon they were under. The man's arm batted against Hiko's leg and the young shinobi sucked in a gasp. Fukurou looked away as a samurai fell upon the bandit, stabbing the man to death.

"We have to move." He whispered urgently.

Hiko shook himself and stared at Fukurou blankly, "We need to get to a safer position, I know where sensei and Shigure are, let's go!" Fukurou said, almost bullying the other boy out of his stupor. Harry Potter had lived through worse, _seen_ worse than this. Though Fukurou hoped never to see such devastation again, he drew heavily on that experience for strength in the knowledge that he had survived worse situations before, showing coolness and confidence he did not necessarily feel. He sensed Hiko draw strength from his act and the two boys crept out from under the wagon, staying in the shadows.

They hadn't quite cleared the chaos of the battle around them when a bandit lunged at Hiko from behind another wagon. The Yamanaka danced to one side, on instinct he drew his ninjatō and dealt the brigand a lethal blow. The distraction caused the boy to freeze up which left him open for another bandit probably following the first, to run into him, knocking the boy to the ground.

A kick to the ribs from Fukurou forced the man to shift his attention and lash out with a dagger. The blow narrowly missed and Fukurou was briefly made to back off. It happened too fast, and Hiko was still too shaken to prevent it. Their assailant drew a badly kept katana and stabbed at Hiko. The boys could only watch as the blade reached its apex, the bandit snarled ferally at Fukurou an instant before his hand came down.

Fukurou, was an Uchiha, a member of a clan that bred their children for battle and held a long legacy of hatred and conflict that ran through their veins. Several things had happened when the bandit lashed out with his dagger at Fukurou. Fear quickened Fukurou's pulse and a shot of adrenaline still coursed through his veins from their narrow escape from the archers. The tomoe of Fukurou's sharingan began to spin in answer to his family's evolved survival traits, forming almost a solid circle of black.

Harry Potter had been a formidable Auror in his time, earning his position as head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement through skill and hard work rather than relying on his reputation and connections. Later as a politician, in an arena of half-truths and misrepresentations, he'd honed a sense for guile and a ruthlessness that would have made Mad-Eye Moody proud. He did so not out of a love of power; but as a measure to protect his friends and help those important to him.

He did so because the lessons of his youth told him what would happen if he didn't crush the nascent Dark Lord intruding upon the peace of his grandchildren. He did so because it was the right thing to do. He did so not out of fear for his own death, he did not fear it then or now. He did what he had to do and let nothing stop him.

There was a reason people were afraid of Harry Potter. His grandchildren didn't see it, Yamanaka Hiko didn't see it. The bandit… saw it. He snarled at Fukurou because in his panic and bloodlust, only his hind brain registered what he was facing. Fukurou saw what the man was about to do and weighed his enemy's life against Hiko's. An old and weary thing, cold and pitiless reached out with chakra into the would-be killer's mind. It touched upon something normally inviolate… and crushed it under heel. Fukurou's voice was not entirely his own as he spoke.

"_**Kill Yourself."**_

Sawada had half completed the arc of his blow when the Voice spoke to him. He could do nothing but obey, not even conscious enough to feel horror as those Eyes within his head watched him contemptuously. Fukurou did not draw back from the connection, feeling it a penance perhaps; he waited until the darkness reached for him as well before letting go. To Hiko, the blade that would take his life curved away at the last second. The brigand above him was smiling eerily even as he carved out his own heart. He died with that grin still upon his face.

"Ugh!"

Fukurou's grunt of pain drew Hiko's attention, worried that his teammate was also under attack and that there lay other threats about them, he put the strange incident out of his mind. But Fukurou was unharmed, the other boy rubbed at his eyes as he hastily scrambled to his feet. The fight ranged around them too close for Hiko to waste his breath on any questions, though he dearly wanted to know something.

Were the three tomoe swimming in each of Fukurou's eyes the cause of his tears?

* * *

Shigure hadn't needed Fukurou's frown to tell her they were screwed. While initially looking like a tactically sound location, the cliff to their backs limiting approaches and the wagons themselves serving as a makeshift palisade. To the ninja, especially as they were Konoha ninja there were a number of jarring holes in this defensive strategy. Shigure knew them because they were mistakes Chun Chu-sensei had trained her team to exploit.

The clearing was too small. Yes, there was more than enough space for the wagons but the tree line was close enough that the canopy could mask the approach of attackers until they were nearly upon them. The cliff that the guard commander had chosen to camp next to was too small to provide adequate cover and the area behind it needed to be scouted properly. When they did, Shigure had found a gentle slope dotted with trees leading up to a ledge from which she could see the entire camp… and kill them with the appropriate tools.

After following her sensei's order to hide at a good watch position while the woman set some traps, Shigure found herself returning to the cliff-top ledge only to find some bowmen taking aim at the camp below. Using every ounce of stealth she had, the girl snuck right up behind a bandit and her allies told her that Chun Chu-sensei was going to pounce on the others.

"You fail at life." She drily said in his ear.

The man startled so badly he fell off the ledge without Shigure needing to even push him. Several arrows perforated the mushi-bunshin which turned into a swarm of angry kikaichu that flew into the faces of the other bandits at the direction of the true Shigure from where she hid behind a tree. The distraction and her tricking the archers into expending their notched arrows gave Chun Chu the chance to dispatch them with extreme prejudice. Which she by did slinging around a tetsubo with lethal force.

Some of Shigure's kikaichu reported back to her, she groaned quietly, "This is bad…"

A roar rose up, signaling an attack upon the fifteen samurai by more than fifty bandits. They were surrounded.

_Clink!_

_Twang!_

___Clink!_

_Snickt!_

___Clink!_

_Twap-Twap-Twap!_

___Clink!_

_Phut!_

_Phoom!_

_Whoosh!_

_Crash!_

A second roar rose up, the sound of innumerable explosions going off, followed falling trees, the screaming of men impaled, poisoned, stabbed, burnt and buried alive…

More of Shigure's kikaichu returned to her and her eyebrows rose as she watched her sensei club a bandit over the head and punt another off the cliff for a three storey drop to the bottom.

"_Sensei, where'd you get so many exploding tags?"_ The girl could only wonder.

The traps had staggered the attack enough so that the samurai only had to deal with small groups of attackers. Some were walking wounded and simply had the misfortune to be heading toward the camp instead of away when the samurai found them and cut them down without mercy. Fukurou arrived a minute later with a dazed-looking Hiko in tow. She stood guard over the boy until he recovered while the young Uchiha unsealed his bow.

She watched with carefully hidden amazement as Fukurou stabbed fifteen arrows into the earth beside him, nocked the sixteenth and in a fluid movement drew and let fly. She'd seen him with the bow while in training but never before had his actions carried a feeling of such grim finality that she didn't doubt that every one of the nine arrows he fired into the skirmish below put down a bandit even if it didn't seem as though Fukurou was even aiming. His hand drew back and the string thrummed as he released the tension on the bow. He did so quickly, methodically, dispassionately…

When it seemed that there were no more targets, Hiko and Shigure watched him do something even more amazing. Chun Chu's explosions had cleared a one hundred meter wide band of forest that formed a semi-circle around the small stand of trees the samurai had camped in. Out in the middle of it a man on a horse was shaking his fist at them, or at least she thought he was. Fukurou seemed to be paying attention to the distant figure with intense scrutiny. As the man wheeled his horse around to ride away, the boy snatched up an arrow and aiming into the sky, nocked and let the projectile loose in the air.

The three genin and their sensei were the only ones in position to watch the arrow follow an arc that didn't take to where the rider was, but where he was _going to be_. Like a silent thunderbolt it fell from the heavens. The arrow hit the soft flesh between collarbone and shoulder blade; and it sank in deep, up to the fletching.

Chun Chu gave a low, impressed whistle as the bandit leader slid off his horse, dead.

"He said that he'd burn Ogawa down even if it was the last thing he did," Fukurou said slowly, "So I made sure it wasn't."

* * *

**AN: If every second story seems a little shorter than the one before, that's because the outlines usually cover two chapters. Or at least they swell to twice the size when I'm through fleshing the story out. They're broken up at points where it makes sense to stop. In this case the finale of the C-rank was a logical choice especially since this story has a T-rating, not an M so I can't get too descriptive and wasn't sure if it was properly sanitized. Is it?**

**TTFN **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Darkness, Red Clovers and Chunin Exams**

* * *

Shimura Danzo stood within the bunker that served as an AnBu base. Its exact location was secret, but the air seemed humid and carried the scent of the ocean. Before him knelt a masked shinobi who had just finished handing him a scroll. He carefully studied it before glancing at the young man before him, "Nobody noticed?" He asked calmly.

A voice slightly altered by the bull-themed mask answered. "No one that remembers…"

The man nodded neutrally, internally marveling at what had been accomplished, "Rise and remove your mask Uchiha Shisui."

Having watched the boy follow the order Danzo spoke with a hint of what might have been regret. "Such superb mastery of an ocular ninjutsu, it's such a shame that your posting with us was only temporary."

Shisui replied calmly, "My work with the intelligence unit was enlightening. I am grateful for the opportunity but I have certain obligations to my clan that make accepting your offer impossible at the moment unfortunately."

Danzo said nothing; both men were canny enough to know what he thought about clan obligations versus village interests.

Instead of taking the implied dismissal Shisui continued on, "There are two with eyes that have even more potential than my own. I'll be working on developing their skills which is why I can't accept." He said much to Danzo's interest.

"Itachi-kun..." Shisui stated.

"And someone with an ocular ninjutsu that may be even greater than my own." Danzo showed true surprise at Shisui's claim.

"Who?" The elder asked him.

The younger man smiled, "Uchiha Fukurou."

* * *

Time passed for Team Chun Chu, weeks turned into months, until nearly two years had passed them by. In the intervening period, the members of the shinobi squad flourished under Chun Chu's tutelage. Fukurou inevitably grew closer to his fellows as a team, eventually inviting them into his home although the way he did so still kept the actual location a closely-held secret. Team Fukurou completed many more D-rank missions before moving to regular C-ranks and later a B-rank mission as well.

The tensions that necessitated Leaf's wartime footing began to gradually fade. When Fukurou was eight, the Shinobi Academy returned to a six-year peacetime curriculum with a three- year minimum attendance requirement for early graduation. For shinobi that had graduated during the wartime period, certification of supplementary studies became a mandatory requirement for those who wished to become chunin.

There were many things that the wartime curriculum simply didn't have the time to impart aspiring shinobi, that their sensei were expected to teach as needed in the field. Hiko complained bitterly at being forced to do homework even after having graduated. Fukurou took a more pragmatic approach and took the certification exams for the basic topics that he had already covered in his own efforts to understand the differences between this world and Harry Potter's. That allowed him to test out of the majority of the lessons and take advanced courses like cryptography, field investigations and forensics.

There were mixed feelings from Fukurou's clan on the change. On one hand nobody wanted their children running around on the battlefield unprepared and in the eyes of most parents, having the genin receive further training was a good thing. However both Chun Chu and Itachi's sensei had waited on nominating them for the Chunin Exams. The less informed members of their clan whispered about the two prodigies being held back out of jealousy and other such ridiculous things.

Even Fugaku who Fukurou knew to be secretly relieved this was happening, sounded like a broken record when talking to him and Itachi, "I expect you two to show the world the strength of the Uchiha Clan," was what he'd say, "Itachi, Fukurou, the Clan has high expectations of you both!"

"_The Clan, the Clan, the Uchiha Clan…"_ It was wearying to be told such things repeatedly. Chun Chu told them that only a utter retard would volunteer a rookie team for the Chunin Exams, even one held in their own home, much less a foreign village like the Hidden Mist that had a bad reputation for dead and missing examinees. By treaty, the successive exams were held In Iwa and Kumo which was even worse for those teams with valuable bloodlines on their roster.

The next village in the line-up was Konoha and the ones after were picked by lots. Fukurou believed that his sensei was waiting until then to nominate her team. He hardly minded though only chunin rank shinobi or higher were eligible to join the police forces. The way he saw things, there was no way that the old Team Chun Chu could have survived an exam in Mist or Hidden Rock.

At least in terms of ability, Hiko was nearly unrecognizable from the flaky ten year-old that he'd been. Cheerful as ever, the Yamanaka had become an excellent budding ninja swordsman, he worked at creating a style that blended the Yamanaka technique Shinranshin with mild genjutsu and artful swordplay. With Chun Chu's expert guidance, it was gradually turning into something quite terrifying to deal with directly, one on one. Hiko was even able to single-handedly deal with a large group of bandits by freezing them in place and having them fight each other while blurry shadows cut them down.

Shigure was shaping up to be an ambush specialist developing a love for some of their sensei's more vicious traps. She had also expanded her hives, carrying the excess kikaichu in a boxy pack, like a medicine vender's, that was secured to her back. Adept at close to mid-range combat and developing a liking for poisonous kikaichu variants, she often served as a 'hidden surprise', in the most horrifically unpleasant meaning of the phrase.

Fukurou was nine and had yet to hit his growth spurt so there was little to be done to improve his taijutsu without compromising his health. He did pick up a lot about the use of a ninjatō from his sensei and was a great aid to Hiko in developing his sword style, given that as an Uchiha, he was the absolutely worst person to have a close-range one-on-one fight with.

With his bow, Fukurou was the worst person to fight at long-range as well. His study of fuinjutsu led to his 'invention' of several new types of seals that amazed his sensei and even got him extra tuition on the subject. For the most part Fukurou's progress in areas related to his old life and magic was kept a secret, his shinobi upbringing instilled the belief that a ninja's ultimate techniques were not to be carelessly displayed. Plus, Harry Potter had become a cagey bastard in his later years.

Thusly, team Chun Chu flourished and when the time came for the Chunin Exams to be held in Konoha, they entered.

* * *

The Chunin Exam, in a word, was the most brutal competition Fukurou had ever participated in. The Genin teams were taken to an underground complex outside the village and separated into three groups. Each group was told a different piece of information regarding the second stage of the exam. Team Chun Chu's group was told the message, "You must to retrieve a scroll from under the stone Buddha and present it to the proctor for the second exam at the specified time."

Fukurou speculated that the other teams would have a location of the stone Buddha the 'specified time' that their clue referred to. He was proven correct when the examiner for the first stage, Konoha's own Orochimaru, addressed them and in the process did a fine job of unnerving everyone.

"You're allowed to kill…" The man said without preamble, "Only the exits are supervised by exam proctors, the rest of this cave system is abandoned, so if you get in trouble then you're just out of luck." He smirked darkly at them the amusement in the jounin's golden eyes raised hairs on Fukurou's neck. "Unless you make it to an exit or manage to survive until this part of the exam is over." A burst of killing intent passed over the assembled genin making them tremble unconsciously. "You'll die, now's the chance if you want to quit," He said to some murmurs, "Take these waivers and sign them if you still want to go on, your lives will be in your own hands…"

The groups were taken in through different entrances that were then guarded. The complex was really a series of water carved caverns linked by tunnels. There was a small forest where the entrance Team Chun Chu was released at was actually a hole in the ceiling that had some game in it. There were fishes in some of the rivers, birds, bats and insects to eat and thirty-odd genin wanting to torture them for information.

They were to get the other parts of the message and report what it was to the proctor in order to proceed without disqualification. They also had to do so as a team with all members able to continue. Fukurou recognized the situation as a Prisoner's Dilemma. All they had to do to pass was talk to the other teams and cooperate. The situation the examiner had created didn't lend itself to such a peaceful solution, unfortunately. Orochimaru locked them in darkness and insinuated that the only way to survive was to fight.

* * *

Team Chun Chu hid while they scouted for other teams. Fukurou tamed some bats for Hiko to mind swap, while Shigure sent out her kikaichu. Fukurou's sharingan was the only reason why the Iwa team that attacked minutes later, didn't manage to kill them. They must have had a sensor in the group, because the attack came from well outside of visual range, in a gap in the forming kikaichu network. Fukurou's sharingan tracked the spread of the earth chakra toward his team's location and alerted them just in time.

The battle was vicious from the get go. The stalagmite formation that they'd been hiding in collapsed into a pit at the center with the outer edges turning inward and down, locking into place like a Venus-flytrap. The maneuver might not have killed them, but the echoing thud as the rocks closed together spoke of broken bones, ruptured organs and months spent in rehabilitation. Fukurou's vision cut through the dim light of the cavern and he spied two of the genin with their palms still pressed to the ground.

"A combination technique then… Or perhaps one that takes up too much chakra to perform alone." He thought, their chakra pools seemed to have taken a hit and it was likely that the Iwa shinobi had been banking on taking his team out of the fight in one move. Hidden behind a stalactite Fukurou quickly noticed that the third Iwa shinobi standing behind the other two was making hand-seals.

His sharingan recorded the hand seals, elemental recomposition and chakra flow. _Tiger-Rat-Snake.._. Fukurou made his move as earth chakra began to loosen the material connecting several stalactites to the ceiling of the cavern in preparation for a low powered, _Doton: Iwayado Kuzushi_. Several of his tamed bats swooped down and latched on to the genin's face, biting and scratching her in a far less amusing rendition of the Bat Bogey Hex. Disturbed by the fight Fukurou was able to rapidly hypnotize and command even more bats to dive bomb the genin below him.

Using the cover he provided, Shigure and Hiko attacked the distracted team with a swarm of kikaichu and a flurry of punches respectively. Hiko knocked out one of the genin by bashing him in the head with the back of his sword. Shigures practically drowned the other two in chakra-draining insects, unpleasant but far less damaging in the long term than what the Iwa shinobi had tried to do to them.

At the end of the fight, Hiko and Shigure watched on as Fukurou hypnotized the beaten genin into revealing their clue. With Shigure and Hiko scouting out teams, they were able to get the third part of the clue on the second day of the exam from the fourth team they tracked down and ambushed. Team Chun Chu was finally able to carefully make their way to an exit and exam proctor waiting there.

Their mission for the second stage of the exam: They were to proceed directly to the Akagahara training ground under escort. Once there they were to retrieve a scroll from under the Buddha in the field of red clovers and present it to the proctor waiting outside the gates for one hour at midday until the first four teams had passed. They were not to leave the training ground unless the scroll had been found and presented, they forfeited, or the exam was concluded.

It was the little tidbit that had been left out until Orochimaru explained it to them as each team passed the first exam that made what should have been a straightforward race to the finish line into a free-for-all, royal rumble. There were only four scroll sealed under the statue of Buddha, to be released by the proctor one at a time as the others were handed in.

* * *

Team Chun Chu was the seventh team to arrive at Akagahara, they were warned of the folly of just rushing in by the remains of the first team, a group of Kumo shinobi, who'd been killed by an exploding pit trap. Still Fukurou and his teammates made their way quickly if cautiously and their effort was repaid for their effort when Shigure managed to detect another team headed out, perhaps with the scroll they needed to pass.

Forewarned, the genin quickly fell into their most effective formation for ambushes. Backtracking, Shigure laid traps along their opponent's expected path as Hiko used shintenshin to get a look at them through the eyes of a possessed tree squirrel while Fukurou guarded his teammate's body. According to Hiko the Mist team looked too exhausted to put up much of a fight. This was proven a few minutes later when Shigure managed to drop a swarm of leaches and kikaichu on the trailing genin without the boy's teammates noticing anything amiss.

As Fukurou stood ready in the wings with paralytic-tipped arrows, Hiko stepped to the fore. Far from his undependable self of old, the Yamanaka threw down a flash bang and jumped in with his sword drawn. The lead genin cursed, blinking tears out of his eyes and drew his sword in answer to the katana that Hiko held before him. He was promptly rendered unconscious by a sharp blow to the temple, delivered by his protesting teammate under the influence of Hiko's Shinranshin no jutsu. A blow from Fukurou seconds later allowed Hiko to release the seal he'd been holding around the katana in his arms.

Shigure walked up to the fallen ninja, rummaged through their clothing and packs before retrieving a scroll.

"…Pwn'd…" She calmly stated.

They'd spent the rest of the day and following night, avoiding a growing group of genin after the scroll much in the same way they'd gained it. Luckily Fukurou was able to raise a barrier that let them pass unnoticed for long enough that they actually got some rest. Between Shigure's kikaichu and his own sharingan their team was able to evade a genjutsu and defeat its users in order to hand the first scroll of the exam to the proctor, Nara Skikaku.

* * *

**AN: Next up, Chunin** **Exam Finals. Yamanaka Hiko vs. Mist Shinobi sword versus sword. Aburame Shigure ambush predator. Uchiha Itachi, Sharingan Warrior. Uchiha Fukurou, dual elementalist. Darkness looms, Orochimaru lurks, Shigure pwns...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Foundations, Betrayals and Bloodlines**

* * *

Shimura Danzo looked over the files of two young genin. What he looked for was not something easily put into words. Their psychological profiles lay opened before him and he read and re-read the best guess analysis of his intelligence section. Danzo was known as the Darkness of shinobi and he held the belief that it was the darker side of shinobi life, the sacrifice and toil of those who would never be named that maintained the peace of the world. For the tree to stand the roots, buried in darkness, must be strong.

He was currently contemplating two new tools that his organization had been made aware of. In all possibility it was a trap, a set up to place spies within the midst of the AnBu but a spy that was known was a spy that could be used or even turned. He saw so many very promising things about these children. The Uchiha held the power to control Kyuubi and in the past their members had proven a threat to the village Danzo had sworn to protect. The clan as a whole was not to be trusted but they were simply too useful in so many ways.

The Kyuubi incident placed a new, more deadly emphasis on that threat. Their impudent, if experienced container was dead as was the Forth Hokage, a capable if idealistic ruler. All that Konoha had left was an infant vessel, an increasingly weary Sandaime, a generation quickly growing up ignorant of war's harsh reality and The Foundation. Orochimaru's research was one avenue that Danzo chose to pursue, it was dark work facilitated with bodies both live and dead obtained or discarded by The Foundation. The letter from Hanzo was another opportunity, one that could strengthen Konoha in the years to come if negotiations continued along a positive vein.

But the Uchiha clan was a knife held to the breast, a danger that was foolishly tolerated by the Sandaime. They needed to be defanged, destroyed if need be. The measures of the Nidaime were proving to be insufficient as the old died and the young simply forgot the sins of the past, with it, the true price of peace. So Shimura Danzo sat in his candle-lit office looking over the files of two young shinobi. He thought to himself that sometimes the best cure for a poison was a share of the poison itself. Then he smiled a little...

* * *

The Chunin Exam held in the Hidden Leaf that year was far from the bloodiest in recent history, that dubious honor went to Iwa and its Landmine Prairie Test, complete with explosive clay grenade toting prairie dog summons. It was, however; the most bitterly fought. Mentally and physically exhausted teams raced to Akagahara which proved to be a trap master's killing field. Teams that had used up too much chakra forged ahead to their peril, teams that waited to recover from their ordeal in the caves before proceeding, faced stiffer competition as the number of competing genin rose with time. In the end there were only three teams that passed, the fourth scroll was lost when genin teams from all five of the great nations decided to recreate the Third Shinobi War in fast forward.

Team Chun Chu, Itachi's genin team and a team from Hidden Mist were the only ones to pass. The death toll from the first to exams wasn't made public but a substantially smaller number of living genin would be leaving the exam than had entered it. The assembled teams learned from the jounin in charge, Akimichi Chouza, that the last phase of the Chunin Eaxam would be a tournament style competition held a month later. Fukurou and his fellow competitors were given a speech from the Third Hokage, a smirking Orochimaru behind him, about the exams being intended to promote peace through war-by-proxy. After being informed of their opponents for the first round, the teams were sent on their way.

Shigure returned home to be greeted by her father and older brother. "I'm in the final round." She stated. She got her poker face from her father, her brother however; favored her with a smile and a warm, "Well done!"

"It was announced that the final exam will be held in a month's time." Her father said, "We will use this time to improve your techniques and prepare, your sensei has already been informed of this." Her dad raised an eyebrow as he held up something for her to see, "She also left you a scroll when I last talked to her, apparently it has all the 'essentials' that you need."

Shigure smiled inwardly as she opened it up and checked the contents sealed on the paper inside. _"Exploding spike traps, exploding pit traps, exploding wire traps, exploding poison traps, explo…."_

With a twitch of a lip as the only sign of her excitement Shigure rolled the sealing scroll back up and said, "SQUEEEE!"

Aburame Kōki gave his twelve year old daughter a look, "…Squee?"

Ignoring her father's question and her brother's mirthful shudders of suppressed laughter, Shigure turned to go up the stairs, "I'll be ready to go in a minute father..."

"Squee?"

She turned and shot him a glare that women at times use on particularly stupid men, "In a MINUTE!"

Sunglasses slightly askew, Kōki licked his lips and nodded, "I-in a minute… yes… take your time."

* * *

Hiko was talking with one of his older cousins, Santa Yamanaka, "So this is what you need help with?" The man asked him, looking at a scroll, "This is quite ambitious of you. Inoichi-sama's grandmother created this technique. Are you sure you can pull this off? What are you using for the medium?"

Hiko tapped the hilt of his katana and Santa nodded, "That could work… but learning to bounce it around might take more than a month."

The younger ninja shrugged, "Sensei worked with me to the point where I have confidence in my skills. I won't lose to the others for a lack of ability. Even so, my teammates know my skills, unless I come up with something new, I'll definitely lose."

Santa frowned in thought, "Yeah… You have that Uchiha on your team right? Uchiha Fukurou? A technique like this would probably work well against a doujutsu user. I guess you do need the edge, and working on this might help me too."

Hiko shrugged, "It's not just Fukurou, Shigure-san isn't a pushover either. But I guess you're right, maybe this'll take him and Itachi by surprise."

Santa smiled in anticipation, "Well let's get started! You've come a long way squirt."

"Don't call me squirt!"

"Squirt!"

* * *

In a hidden location under a certain shrine, Uchiha Shisui presented a familiar looking scroll to the Elders and his Clan's leader. Fugaku looked it over, "Amazing…" was all he could say.

"You managed to retrieve an Uzushio Technique scroll, an original too…" One of the Elders commented, "This is quite a find Shisui, does Danzo suspect that the scroll in his possession is not the original?"

Shisui smirked, "Danzo had everyone from the mist hunter-nin to our own AnBu convinced that the defector was the primary object of the mission. His own pets shadowed the mission and they never let their eyes off of me… Which made things easier for me, as far a Danzo believes, the original was destroyed and the one he has in his possession is the sole copy found by the defector. The sensor he set up to watch me will confirm it."

An elder near the back told them, "These techniques are the basis of the sealing techniques used on all Konoha Jinchuriki. He must be trying for a play at the container. He probably intends to eventually have a copy made and presented to the Sandaime… a copy of a copy! Fu fu fu!" Dark laughter filled the room.

"Shisui…" Fugaku said, "Itachi and Fukurou made it into the final round as we expected. I've arranged for you to begin training Itachi in preparation for the exam, Fukurou will be handled by another" Shisui acquiesced without comment as shadows flickered across his face.

"That will be you, Mikoto…" said Elder Michiru.

Fugaku's wife, who had been quietly sitting behind him in the flickering candlelight blinked in shock, "Me?"

Fugaku seemed a little displeased but held his silence.

"You men folk have been letting this child run circles around you for more than two years now!" The Elder panned her eyes over the sheepish looking men in the room, few met her sharingan eyes. "Perhaps this situation requires a woman's touch. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Forcing Fukurou-kun will only alienate him and he's already proven adept at avoiding your attempts to draw him into the fold Fugaku. But all boys yearn for their mother, Mikoto! You are a jounin-level kunoichi of the Uchiha Clan! Train him for the exam and use this opportunity to form closer ties between Fukurou and his clan… as it should be!"

"Of course I will do as you say but what about Sasuke?" Mikoto worried, he still too young to be left unattended.

"Hmph! This too requires a woman's touch! Fugaku, for the next month I'll be staying at your home and taking care of Sasuke-chan while your wife is away." Michiru announced imperiously.

Mikoto sighed, "Thank you mother."

Fugaku nodded with a stiff expression while his father shot him a commiserating look from across the hall. The clan leader seemed even more displeased at the prospect of having his mother-in-law over for the next month. What if she decided to stay? Somehow he forced out a polite, "P-please take care of us…"

"I see," Another Elder stated turning to Shisui, "If that boy is a true inheritor of our bloodline, inevitably he will face Itachi in the finals. Not only will their battle prove the strength of our clan once again to the assembled powers but a loss will bind Fukurou to us as securely as winning under Mikoto's tutelage. A rival to be surpassed will only serve to excite our blood…"

* * *

In the two years since becoming a genin Fukurou had come up with a theory regarding the differences between magic and chakra. Fukurou know believed that what he had known as magic was really a form of Onmyōton or the Yin-Yang release. The mental magics, animagi transformation, charms, transfiguration and divination all fell into this realm of chakra techniques. As natural users of such techniques among ninja were rare to find, this theory explained why the proportion of wizards in Harry's world were smaller when compared to Fukurou's.

Inton or Yin-release was the manipulation of one's spiritual energy to give form to one's dreams and imagination. As a wizard this had been the mental and emotional requirements that drove a spell, like the happy memories of a patronus, the visualization needed to change a match into a needle or the deliberation required for apparition. Techniques that required Inton as a component resulted in mental strain and fatigue which accounted for the way a wizard grew tired after casting one too many spells but did not, necessarily die as a ninja might. In the case of Inton, someone who overused the ability was more likely to fall into a coma that was the common side effect of magical exhaustion that Harry was familiar with.

Yōton or Yang-release was the manipulation of one's physical energy to breathe life into form. Fukurou recognized this as the other half of most transfigurations and transformations that changed one object into another or a person into an animal. Tonk's and Teddy's metamorphamagus abilities most likely stemmed from this ability. It was what gave impetus to the transfiguration of match into needle, the vitality that caused wizards to age more slowly than their muggle counterparts, the determination that fueled movement through space and time during apparition. Harry had never had cause to use them but he had known of spells and rituals that drew upon life force to charge themselves or to spark the physical transformations that wizards like Voldemort had gone through in an effort to enhance their selves.

Thus, Onmyōton, the combined use of Inton and Yōton was what Harry had called magic. And Fukurou had inherited it, at least in part. The spiritual energies of Harry Potter now belonged to Uchiha Fukurou, whose heritage already gave him powerful spiritual energies. This boost was what gave his sharingan their peculiar ability to easily breach a person's mental barriers and sympathize with the inner thoughts of others with but a glance into their eyes.

But to properly wield the eyes of an Uchiha one needed the body of one as well. Physical exercise the likes of which Old Harry had only seen as an Auror Trainee became the norm as a member of Team Chun Chu and it seemed that his body was altering itself to accommodate the Yin chakra within it by adapting and trying to develop a matching amount of Yang chakra. Fukurou was finding himself growing much, much stronger for the exercises that he underwent and his chakra more potent. The amount of Yin chakra that his body possessed was also having another effect, this time on his chakra nature affinity.

Fukurou was training in one of the grounds that his that Uncle Teyaki had arranged to be set aside for his use for the upcoming Chunin Exam. He held a steel tipped arrow to his lips and breathed on it. The metal turned a dull cherry red and the wood began to smoke slightly even with the fire resistance seals on it. Quickly nocking the arrow, Fukurou sent the projectile sailing down range to a set of targets set up a measly hundred meters away in the middle of a small pond. The second his arrow impacted the log, the whole thing went up in flames with an audible, -FRUMP!- as the wood shattered into pieces from the explosive force of having the water that saturated it, instantly evaporated by the power flowing from his arrow's fire chakra inundated tip.

Carefully, Fukurou nocked another arrow that he had breathed on. In this case the arrow tip glowed pale green and in the sight of his sharingan there were several rotating blades that twisted about the arrowhead in a conical helix. This arrow made a sound akin to a buzz saw when it hit the target post. Rather than explode, the arrow chewed through the wood and came out the other side, flying downrange through another tree and a rock before burying itself in the earth.

Fukurou nocked a third arrow, this one he held a moment, concentrating carefully on sending his chakra in a cycle that coiled through the arrow, tighter and tighter. The bands of chakra wound tighter, rubbing against each other and building a charge that gathered at opposite ends until a violet glow enveloped the entire arrow. Letting it fly, the arrow seemed to slip through the target post as if it didn't hit it at all. It continued on unimpeded by the trees and rocks it collided with until it buried itself three meters into the earthen embankment that was the reason for Fukurou being at this particular training ground.

While one's nature affinity didn't bar a ninja from learning multiple types of nature transformation it did however make it easier for a ninja to utilize the element he or she held an affinity for. One example of this is the Grand Fireball technique. While a common Konoha ninja skill, most users without a fire affinity only manage basketball sized fireballs or at best, wide gouts of flame capable of engulfing a man's entire torso. Compared to that, the Uchiha Clan fielded so many ninja with a fire affinity that one wasn't considered an adult until one could spit out a cottage-sized fireball.

Most chunin possessed at least one nature affinity that allowed them to give their chakra the properties and nature of a certain element. Most jounin possessed two and in some cases, with time and hard work even developed three. Fukurou unique nature allowed him three affinities at an age most ninja would have been fortunate to develop one. And now he was running through all the battles he had witnessed during the first two rounds of the Chunin Exam, particularly the fights of Suna and Kumo genin. He tried recalling the jutsu used and began to replicate them from memory.

The next few hours were spent slinging around a selection of lightning and wind attacks. At times he tried combining the wind attacks with his fire style jutsu. The results were often spectacular. It was this sight that Uchiha Mikoto happened across when she came looking for Fukurou. Thought neither knew it, their meeting was to change the fate of their clan and village.

* * *

**AN: Chunin Exam Finals next up, some training, some fights and a battle of bloodlines. Enter, Yuki Clan of the Village Hidden in the Mist.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Preparations, Predators and Bloodlines**

* * *

Shuriken sparked against thrown shuriken as twin shadows raced through a forest of trees. Gouts of flame were spat forth by one, searing through the air in an attempt to burn the other shadowy combatant. Itachi replaced himself with a log as he evaded the roiling flames. He threw six shuriken at his opponent in rapid succession and at different speeds. Two of his own shuriken collided in the air and ricocheting slightly, they moved along diverging paths as a third shot between them. The change in trajectories allowed the spread of shuriken to evade the ones sent to intercept them as they headed for their target, Uchiha Shisui.

Only Shisui was no longer where he had been standing. A mild genjutsu combined with bunshin and a short range shunshin created an afterimage that vanished as the thrown projectiles sailed through where he had been. Shisui raced up to Itachi from outside of the boy's peripheral vision. He seemed to disappear from one place only to reappear in another, ready to attack. Itachi struggled to parry Shisui's first blow, aimed at his temple. He was barely able to dodge a kick and took another hit in his short ribs that left him gasping. The two boys traded blows for a time before an exhausted Itachi stumbled and fell over a tree root.

"Okay, stop." Shisui commanded, "Let's go sit by the lake and rest for lunch. During that time I want you to do some image training. Try to picture this fight the best that you can remember it, recall the tactics used to defeat you and try to find a way to overcome them. Your sharingan is good for more than copying jutsu. Not only can you rapidly cast ocular genjutsu but it's good for memorizing and analyzing large amounts of visual data in detail."

Itachi breathlessly nodded, wiping away sweat that threatened to drip into his eyes.

"That is where your true capacity as a ninja will make itself known," Shisui continued as they walked away, "Strengthen your mind and body with every battle. Observe! Learn from what you've seen! Turn your own eyes upon yourself as much as you will to an opponent and learn to read your own strengths and weaknesses. Only when you have a true measure of your capacity can you truly take steps to become invincible in combat." He advised.

Itachi listened in silence, _"A measure of my capacity?"_

In another forested training ground, Mikoto was standing in the center of a clearing as part of Fukurou's training exercise. She was wearing a more austere version of her old shinobi kit. As a jounin level kunoichi bearing the sharingan, Mikoto had been an accomplished ninja in her day. While it was true that she had gone on fewer missions since her marriage and the birth of Itachi, fewer still after Sasuke was born, she was still more than a match for a genin. As it was she was probably a better choice for an instructor than Shisui was based on experience alone. This boy she was training, he impressed her with his skill.

She had heard of Fukurou of course, the young ninja with green eyes that so enthralled the Elders and teenage girls of her clan for pretty much the same reason. If the reports were true and it was looking like they were, the boy was both frighteningly skilled and worryingly aloof. Though in truth, he was not so aloof that Mikoto had never met him. Still, Fukurou struck her as what Itachi might have been without the constant pressure to succeed. He was a genius in his own right, the type that Konoha had often produced at the cost of their children's innocence. Yet, having him babysit Sasuke and watching him evade his amorous cousins with a veiled look of mortification set her heart at ease even as looking upon him pained her.

Fukurou really was what Itachi could have been…

He certainly had the skill. There was a tear in the loose, high-necked, kimono that she wore over her torso armor. She'd misjudged the trick behind his arrows and would have taken the projectile in her neck if not for a last second kawarimi. The kage bunshin that she had sent in after him was dispersed after triggering a four-layer barrier trap that shot out countless blades of wind at victims trapped within, potentially chopping them to mush. Wind tugged at the loose folds of her long black pants as she stood within the clearing that the rules of this spar stated she couldn't leave for another two minutes.

She strained her ears, though these arrows were somehow silent. The long sleeves of her kimono were pulled back and tied at her shoulders, leaving her arms bare. Goosebumps rose on the skin of her arms as she felt for any changes in air pressure. Mikoto's sharingan glared out at the forest looking for any flares of chakra or blur of motion.

There! A shadow flickered as an arrow passed through a bar of morning sunlight. The one glimpse was enough to calculate its trajectory based on the movement of the arrow's silhouette and that allowed Mikoto to dodge by simply shifting to one side. The sharingan's predictive ability made attacks that relied on precise targeting at long range very easy to evade. Provided the sharingan user saw the attack and was capable of moving in time, that and they better hope that the attack wasn't being guided by another sharingan wielder.

The arrow shifted with her. Of course this had been what had happened the last time Mikoto tried to evade in an attempt to hammer home the futility of such an attack against a prepared ninja. Fukurou's sensei must have predicted the same and rather than dissuade her student she'd tried to correct the flaw in his technique. The weapon was blocked with the flat of Mikoto's kunai as she watched it carefully with her sharingan. behind the fletching there was a blue thread of chakra leading off into the woods.

Fukurou used a chakra string to direct the path of the arrow all the way up to the point of impact, giving the ridiculously fast and silent weapon, a tracking ability enhanced by the sharingan. Against most ninja, attacking like this was a superb tactic. Hidden out of sight Fukurou erased his presence and utilized the element of surprise to launch his attack. Swift and silent, it was all but impossible to evade. It was an assassination technique that with some improvements might even take out experienced Uchiha or Hyūga shinobi. It was certainly the attack of a chunin level ninja.

Against a jounin like Mikoto, however; such a level meant that it still wasn't enough to beat her and that the flaws that existed were exploitable. The two minutes were up and Mikoto burst into action. She threw down a smoke bomb and formed a second kage bunshin that darted for the tree-line. Mikoto herself sank into the ground and used the underground projection fish technique to follow her clone. It was time to turn Fukurou's training up a level.

In another training ground on Yamanaka land closer to the Hokage Mountain, Hiko was trading several attacks with clones of his cousin. He leapt into the air as one of the clones dived at him from behind. They were regular bunshin but for this training Hiko was treating them as if they were real opponents. Furthermore, his cousin was hidden among them. Finishing his technique was just a small part of the challenge as he'd been using a bastardization of it before. This time he needed to discard all of the little tricks that served as crutches if he was to make his ace in the hole truly battle ready.

He kicked off the underside of the tree branch that he had latched onto and fell upon the clone. A twist as he fell allowed him to evade an illusory kunai as he opened up the side of the bunshin's neck. Bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet he danced out of the way of a brace of shuriken and attacked the origin of the clones before his cousin could switch places. A kunai blocked a cross-wise slash but that was planned. Hiko's hands tightened on the hilt of his sword as he began to focus on activating the technique. If he succeeded, Hiko's next step was to increase his abilities range.

Each of the competitors trained their hardest, the tensions of the last war still made people nervous that a weak showing might lead to conflict. Across the elemental nations daimyo and the bosses of ninja clans were receiving invitations to the event or buying tickets discreetly. Delegations from the great villages were heading out and even the reticent Yondaime Mizukage was beginning to move. Fukurou was oblivious to this as he trained with Mikoto.

Mikoto's clone made it into the tree line before being felled by an arrow that came out of her blind spot. The clone's death had at least allowed her the chance to locate Fukurou's most likely position based on a glimpsed surge in his chakra. Rising out of the earth in silence, Mikoto blurred through her hand seals releasing Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu into the canopy of a tree. She narrowed her eyes as the multiple fireballs struck yet only to have a burning leaf covered cloak fell to the ground.

"_He used Kakuremino no Jutsu to hide himself and conserve his chakra but that bow of his must require that he augment his strength just to nock it, not to mention create those special arrows."_ Mikoto thought to herself.

Wanting to conserve her own chakra after two kage bunshin and five minutes of sharingan aided dodging exercise Mikoto drew a pair of kunai. She was nonetheless forced to draw upon the remaining fire chakra left over from her last technique to perform a seal less Katon: Hiendan that incinerated the wind chakra enhanced arrow that buzzed toward her face. She threw one kunai toward Fukurou's hiding place as she dodged the hot ashes and slag that came from the destroyed arrow. Mikoto used shunshin to appear at Fukurou's side.

The boy ducked under the kunai in Mikoto's left hand that cut a few strands of hair as it lashed at him. He was then forced to take the brunt of a snap kick with his forearms. The force of the blow knocked his bow out of his hands and into the bushes surrounding them. Mikoto slightly expected that Fukurou would prioritize recovering his bow over their fight. Many tool users made the mistake of having a favorite weapon that they took into battle only to get distracted at the worse times possible when they lost it. She supposed that having a weapons master as a jounin sensei helped to eliminate any bad habits that might otherwise have formed. Fukurou simply chucked a wind enhanced kunai at her before back flipping away.

Letting Fukurou have his space proved to be a mistake. The boy somehow completed the hand seals for an earth release technique in mid air while upside-down. When his hands hit the ground for his third flip, Mikoto was forced to jump away from her position as mud and loose earth rose to either side of her, forming a small fanged mouth as high as her hips. It slammed shut with a thud that shook the ground slightly. Mikoto, in retaliation, formed three hand seals and shot out several globs of mud that Fukurou nimbly dodged.

He answered with a lightning jutsu that leapt at her from his index and ring fingers which continued to spark lightly for seconds afterward. It was easy to avoid with her eyes and speed but the low level ration technique would have dulled her movements had it hit, perhaps even immobilized her. Mikoto figured that Fukurou was trying out the techniques he'd copied during the initial phases of the exam. Wanting to see how he would deal with the challenge Mikoto let loose a single, fast moving mud ball that she then engulfed in a stream of flame.

Fukurou used shunshin to get out of the way and retaliated with Katon: Hiendan which was then followed with a twisting tongue of wind that caught Mikoto by surprise. The roiling flames rolled over her position as she watched with wide eyes but the jounin was already gone. Her technique, earth erupting fist, caught Fukurou square under his jaw and a spinning kick using the last of her momentum sent Fukurou skidding through the bushes toward the small pond.

"Enough…" Mikoto said, breathing deeply. She noted with some surprise that although slightly dazed and in pain Fukurou seemed to be otherwise fine despite going for nearly ten minutes against a jounin. What really impressed Mikoto was the fact that from the time she had confronted Fukurou with her fire ninjutsu she had been repeatedly attempting to ensnare him in some of her medium level genjutsu as part of her test of his abilities. Even using her sharingan, she found herself unable to successfully cast an illusion on him. The fact that her eyes didn't even cause Fukurou to falter, not for a second, said volumes about the potential of his ocular abilities, at least in comparison to her own.

Mikoto shivered a little as her sharingan gauged the boy's remaining chakra. His chakra potential was larger than any ninja she'd seen barring a jinchūriki. That assessment included her husband, the sannin and the Hokage. She was quickly beginning to understand the necessity of her mission. This boy… might be even stronger than Itachi. And she was going to make him stronger while binding him to the clan.

The day of the Chunin Exams arrived too soon for some, not soon enough for others. Fugaku for one was happy to be rid of his mother-in-law as he found a whole new appreciation for the presence of his wife in his household. There was no nagging, no weird-smelling cabbage broth that he had to eat for his health, no being ordered about in his own home. When Fugaku was unhappy other people were unhappy, thus his subordinates within the police force were also relieved to have Mikoto return home. The prisoners in lock up even sent her a 'Welcome Home' card.

The Main Gate opened fully that day. The people of the village lined the streets and looked of windows in the houses all along the main road. Carriages drawn by enormous oxen paraded through the streets. The representatives of the Daimyo of Fire Country attended with their samurai and ninja guards. The Yondaime Mizukage arrived later with his own entourage of followers. The villagers of Konoha made the newcomers welcome as they celebrated the chunin exam finals with fireworks and confetti thrown into the air. The Daimyo of a host of smaller countries that were clients of the Village Hidden in the Leaves came to see the skill and talent of a new generation of ninja. For much the same reason oyabun of smaller ninja clans and discreet representatives of the other great shinobi villages attended, meaning to scope out the skills of their future potential rivals.

The roaring crowds were loudest within the stadium reserved for the event. It was a powerful sound that reverberated within the guts of the nine shinobi arrayed in a line before the tournament referee, jounin, Akimichi Chouza. The air was electrified with excitement. Bets both publicly sanctioned and illegal were exchanged by everyone from the guards at the village gates to the daimyo sitting in private booths. Civilians cheered heartily, in their minds this was all a play put on for their enjoyment. A few savvy individuals, the close relations and spouses of ninja, looked to the surly foreign ninja that watched the genin on the stadium floor. These fights were a freely given look into the future strength of the Hidden Leaf and Mist.

Fukurou and Itachi anchored each end of the line. Both were impassively watching the crowds. Itachi was armed with a ninjato and extra shuriken holsters on his hip. He wore the traditional dark blue, high collared shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and loose pants taped to his ankles at the bottom. His hands were also bandaged, though hints of scars and bruises from his training could still be seen with a keen enough pair of eyes.

Fukurou, much the same as Itachi, looked upon the crowd impassively with carefully hidden anxiety. He, like his distant cousin, wore the same type of shirt and pants only they were black in color. He had a tanto sheathed at his waist and two scrolls on his opposing hip in addition to his normal kit. His arms were similarly taped and bandaged as Itachi's were. Only Fukurou wore fingerless gloves on his hands and bracers with a containment seal for arrows drawn on the inside of them.

To Fukurou's left stood Shigure and Hiko. They were dressed much the same as they had been before the exams, save that Shigure's boxy hive was exchanged for a solid-looking backpack and Hiko was covering his body with a white and red cape of all things. To the right of Itachi were his teammates, Inuzuka Benitsu and her red Akita Inu, Rin; and Hyūga Shozen. Situated between the two Konoha teams were the mist genin. From right to left they were announced as Yuki Aika, Habuki Akira, and Ito Kazuo. Habuki and Ito each bore swords and all three carried two bottles of water and a scroll in addition to their existing equipment.

The only hints of Fukurou's feelings about the roaring mob were the words he muttered as the other contestants left._"We who are about to die salute you."_

Of course, the examiner promised to step in if they surrendered or appeared to be in imminent mortal danger. From the strange mixture of anxiety, surprise and relief on his opponent, Ito Kazuo's face, such an assurance was not to be taken for granted in other villages. The Hidden Mist seemed to be a truly terrifying place to live if their shinobi seemed honestly surprised by the idea of a non-lethal spar. One look into Ito's eyes confirmed this… and revealed the fact that the boy had been ordered by the Mizukage to kill Fukurou anyway if he could get away with it.

It was an expressionless Fukurou that stood in place as Kazuo drained the water in both of the bottles that he carried in order to perform Kirigakure no jutsu, veiling the stadium floor with a thick mist. There was a tense silence as the spectators tried to glimpse into the fog. Suddenly, the mist lightened. Those with the ability to sense chakra turned their eyes to see the water laden air condense into a narrow jet of water that shot forth from Kazuo's mouth carving through a rock that was in the way. A cry rose up as it arrowed toward the genin just turning toward it.

At some time after the mist was raised by Ito, Fukurou had summoned into his hands an uchiwa style fan. It was a gift from Mikoto who had trained him to utilize better wind release techniques in preparation for the exam. It was a solid hoop of chakra conductive metal covered in thick canvas over wire mesh with a diameter as long as he was tall. The battle fan was a quite heavy weapon for a nine year old to wield. Fukurou used his body as a fulcrum to both lift and swing it while kneading wind chakra for his technique causing the mist to spiral around as him as he intoned to himself, _"F__ū__ton: Gōkūhō."_

The metal siding drew a semi-circle in the sand as momentum dragged it across the ground at the end of one great swing. The attack and counter attack happened within the space of two seconds. The first burst of compressed air blasted Ito's _Suiton: Mizurappa_, apart. Fukurou exhaled a stream of fire into the winds battling with Ito's technique before again fanning the flames with a second blast of wind.

There were screams from the crowd as the flames licked near the lip of the contest field's wall. Chouza Akimichi jumped down from his position on the far wall as the wind and heat wiped away the mist as if it were a fading dream. He frowned slightly at Fukurou for killing his opponent but saw that the boy had his full attention on the conflagration before him. It was then he heard the sibilant hiss of water being rapidly evaporated into steam. When the firestorm was dispersed Ito Kazuo could be seen unconscious within a circle of unburnt grass with an open sealing scroll in his hand. After summoning medics to treat the lobster red Ito, Chouza announced Fukurou as the winner to much applause.

Impressed civilians in the crowd and the watching ninja commented on the wind and fire ninjutsu combination that would have been difficult for a jounin to perform properly. The chunin proctors noted this ability but what they found especially commendable was the way he'd remained calm after losing sight of his opponent in the middle of the fight and Fukurou's ability to quickly choose and perform an effective counter attack. Some commented on the deadliness of the technique but usually in relation to the severity of the mist genin's opening attack, which had it landed, such a tightly focused water jet might have bisected Fukurou. Mikoto took in these comments from where she sat watching with her family, an infant Sasuke in her arms.

What no one knew was that Fukurou had seen the source of Ito's fear. Failure to kill either Itachi or Fukurou was to be harshly punished. The Mizukage had pretty much insinuated that the mist genin that fought them would be executed if they lost without putting the maximum amount of effort possible into the task. From the moment that he had drawn the fight with Fukurou, Ito had been going over possible tactics with his team and sensei for the battle.

The plan had been to use the mist as cover for an attack as Kazuo had done. This was foiled the moment Ito looked into Fukurou's eyes. His intentions had been on the very surface of his mind along with the very real fear of death. It had taken only a small hypnotic suggestion during that moment of eye contact to suggest the justu Ito would use, the position that he would attack from and what technique he would defend with. The rest had simply been a matter of timing the counterattack correctly and getting Ito to faint, giving the impression of heat exhaustion. Using his ocular techniques to plant the post hypnotic suggestion to lose consciousness had taken only a small exertion of his will. Ito had been scared and nervous, his mind not nearly as well guarded as Mikoto's had been when they had trained together.

With Fukurou's first match over and Ito Kazuo removed from the field, Habuki Akira and Aburame Shigure were called forth for the next fight. Habuki jumped into the ring while Shigure appeared in a plume of smoke. Having been drilled on their opponents before hand, Habuki leapt back from Shigure as the match began. Flipping the cover off of one of his water bottles, water gathered around his katana before flying off as he swung his blade in an arc.

The words _Suiton: Mizu Kiritachi_ left his lips with a huff of exertion. The blade of water flew toward Shigure who leapt into the air to avoid it. A second Mizu Kiritachi from Habuki caught her in midair and the crowds gasped in horror as the girl was cut in half. The stricken gasps changed in tone as a charred log fell to the ground before Akira. On the top half of the log was a tag that read, _"Idiot."_ Habuki was already looking toward the closest source of charred logs within the stadium. That was the small forest incinerated by Fukurou's attack and the only available source of cover nearby.

It was only the cry of warning from his teammate Yuki Aika that saved Habuki from being heavily injured as the second piece of log that rolled away had a tag on it that read, _"Explosive."_

-Boom-

A last minute kawarimi with another charred log that he had been looking at saved him. However this placed Habuki within close range of Shigure who charged him with a drawn ninjato. Scoffing lightly that this girl thought that she could take him with a sword, Akira prepared to meet her attack. That was his first mistake, not watching his footing he stepped on something he shouldn't.

-Clink!-

-Snap!-

With a howl of agony Akira struggled to stay standing with the sprung bear trap on his foot. Somehow through the pain he focused on one last jutsu before Shigure reached him. Seallessly water flowed along his blade, lengthening it until he held a nodachi. With a savage twist Akira cut through the cheap metal of the Shigure's ninjato and slashed open her stomach in a move that drew a scream of pain from both of them. Lying on the ground, with black darkness at the edges of his vision he waited for the proctor to call the match and get him some medical treatment. "Got'cha," Akira huffed.

"Fail…" A voice from somewhere behind him called out.

"What!" was all Habuki had time to say when the corpse next to him turned into a black mass of bugs that swarmed all over him.

"Argh!" He cried as kikaichu swarmed over him.

Fortunately they were the non-poisonous kind… not that it looked any less unpleasant to the audience as the body writhed for a bit in a skin-crawling manner before falling still with a sob. The insects retreated from the body in a line that led to Chouza's shadow which seemed much darker than usual. The mass of kikaichu hiding in the jounin's shadow increased in height and definition until it was Shigure standing behind him. "Mushi Kakuremino no Jutsu" she stated quietly. Bowing to the examiner she thanked him as the match was called in her favor.

Again after giving time for all parties to depart the field, the referee called the next match. Yamanaka Hiko would be fighting Yuki Aika. The two genin stood before each other on the field though Hiko seemed distracted and shot slightly love struck looks at the mist kunoichi. Aika hid her feelings on being the only mist genin left in the exam. After Chouza called for the match to start the Yuki clan member spoke up, "You look like you have something to say…" She stated.

Hiko indeed looked like he had something to say, several somethings as his love struck look yielded to a contemplative one then to a horrified look before shifting to the slightly constipated look he had when there was a really burning question that he needed to ask. So he asked, "I don't know how things work in Kiri so I gotta ask. Are you a real girl or a girly looking guy?"

In the stadium, Santa Yamanaka palmed his face in exasperation.

Wondering if she'd been insulted or not, Aika replied, "I'm a 'real' girl."

"Will you go out with me?" Hiko asked immediately.

"No." was the instant reply.

Chuckles rippled through the crowd as Chun Chu buried her face in her three year old daughter, Tenten's hair. "Hikoooo…"

"If you have no more questions…" Aika said as she crouched slightly.

"No…" Hiko drew his sword.

"Then forgive me if this match ends with your quick defeat." She said.

"So I can still ask you out even if I kick your ass, got it!" Hiko glibly replied.

The two genin blurred forward and a sword made of ice parried Hiko's katana. The two weapons met in a series of exchanges ending with Yuki Aika slapping the side of Hiko's sword with her own. Ice that had covered Hiko's weapon during the fight shattered but the blade itself was unmarred. "Impressive workmanship…" Aika noted as she leapt backward. Her attempt at destroying her opponent's weapon due to thermal shock had failed.

"I'll pass your compliments on its creator." Hiko told her. _"Good thing that I've been flowing my chakra through this sword from the beginning."_ He thought to himself.

If there was one thing the previous exchange had taught Hiko, it was that Aika was slightly faster than him. Already at a disadvantage, he decided to attack. Dodging thrown projectiles and a spike of ice that just erupted from the ground, Hiko leapt into the air. In a single graceful move he slashed at the girl's skull with the back of his sword in a move accelerated by gravity and his somersault through the air. The ice sword that tried to parry his blade snapped under the assault but Hiko failed to land a solid blow.

As if a switch were flipped, Aika's body vanished in a spray of frost. _Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō, _was whispered into Hiko's ear. And a cage of hexagonal ice mirrors completely enclosed him in a dome.

"Is this because I asked you out?" Hiko asked in a quavering voice. His only answer was a blade of ice that he parried only on instinct and another that would have hit his kidney is not for his under armor. He realized that he couldn't even see Aika move. _"I have no choice, I'd hoped to save this for Fukurou or Itachi but there's no helping it."_

As Hiko's instincts screamed at him to dodge, he instead changed the flow of chakra through his sword as he held the blade aloft. _"Shinrangatana no Jutsu!"_ Bright light shone from Hiko's katana as on instinct he struck out with the dull edge of the blade. This was Hiko's interpretation of a technique pioneered by Yamanaka Inoichi's late grandmother. The Shinran Kagami Juin no Jutsu, the mind and mirror curse technique, anyone that looked at the light reflected off of the medium used by the jutsu, while within a certain range, found their control over their bodies disrupted and controlled by the technique's user. Hiko had mastered it using his katana as a focus.

He couldn't s use it at ranges of more than one meter nor control his opponent's movements very well, just paralyze them temporarily but it was enough. Hiko succeeded in defeating his opponent though not without being injured himself. Bleeding profusely from several stab wounds, the medics carried the two genin off of the field as the match was called a draw. In the stands the Mizukage stood as the last match the Hidden Mist would participate in was called.

"Mizukage-dono?" the Sandaime Hokage queried, as the other Kage rose to leave.

"I have seen enough," The younger man calmly replied, "I will forward my votes to your secretary before I leave."

The Hokage frowned in displeasure at the incredibly rude gesture but held his peace as the other man left with his masked guards trailing behind him.

A single red eye watched from the shadows as Uchiha Itachi walked out onto the field, it traced a path to where Uchiha Fukurou stood within the competitor's box. Uchiha Madara watched the two boys consideringly. He wondered whose eyes were better. He wanted them both. So he waited and watched as Itachi began his match. He alone realized what Fukurou had done to the mist genin and now he wanted to see Itachi's power.

_Talented eyes_

_Talented eyes_

_Talented eyes to add to his collection..._

Unaware of this particular observer, Itachi watched as Benitsu clapped her hands together as she psyched herself up for the fight. It was almost amusing the way that Rin copied her master but Itachi knew better than to let his amusement show. Benitsu would take it the wrong way. She would forget the purpose of the exam and fight until she hurt herself. It was her way to give her all and Rin followed her master dutifully regardless of the consequences. Itachi decided to end the fight quickly.

As he expected the two were off as soon as the fight began. Benitsu fell upon a tactic that Shisui had used to beat him into the ground again and again until his body simply reacted on instinct. When Benitsu swiped a clawed hand at his eyes, Rin circled around and tried to lunge at him from behind. He flipped backward over the Inuzuka hound as the first whiff of hot breath wafted against the leg the dog was attempting to hamstring.

He kicked out, lashing against his teammate's jaw as her clawed fingernails grazed lightly against his skin. His second foot came around then and booted Rin in the rear, sending the dog careening into her mistress. With the two tangled upon the ground Itachi raced through some hand seals before launching a weak fireball that would graze the downed duo. There was an eruption of smoke and Itachi danced out of the way as a pair of buzz saw like disks rolled past him.

His eyes could clearly see two copies of Benitsu performing a move she proclaimed to be _Gatenga_. They rolled at him again and Itachi used shunshin to open up some room between them. His two opponents rolled up the stadium wall before exiting the Gatenga. Thinking quickly, Itachi reached into his pouch as he rapidly threw a hail of well aimed shuriken at the two as they hovered in the air.

Rin and Benitsu returned to their rolling attack as Itachi stabbed a kunai with a wire attached to it into the log that Hakubi Akira had used for his kawarimi. The wire pulled taught and it seemed to be pulling the log into the rolling buzz saw that was the Gatenga on Itachi's left. There was a crack and a yelp as Rin released her transformation in pain as the tied up Akita Inu rolled to a stop bound to a cracked log. Itachi's earlier hail of shuriken had carried wires that served their purpose in stopping at least one of his attackers by fouling up his opponent's movements.

Upon hearing Rin's yelp of pain, Benitsu forgot herself and turned to roll her way toward her partner intending to guard her. It presented Itachi with an opportunity that he couldn't pass up. His sharingan flashed as he tracked Benitsu's movements. Selecting a flashtag, he tied it to a kunai and threw it into the center of the Gatenga from the side that Benitsu inadvertently presented to him. It detonated somewhere under her chin and sent her rolling to the ground unconscious from sensory overload as she skidded to a stop next to her Inuzuka partner.

With the previous contestants cleared from the field. The next match to be called involved Hyūga Shozen versus Aburame Shigure. There was a ten minute intermission between the first and second rounds of matches. Hyūga Shozen was given a bye into the second round and the winner of his match against Shigure would fight the winner of the Fukurou versus Itachi fight. Shozen realized that being given a bye hadn't improved his chances of promotion any. It actually decreased his exposure to the judges.

Sozen's only alternative was to impress them somehow with the chances that he had. This was harder said than done, as a close range fighter, facing an Aburame put him at risk of being overwhelmed by kikaichu. His advantages were that the girl should be tired having already fought once and he was now familiar with her style of combat. If he wanted to win he would have to press the Aburame hard, Sozen decided. Press her hard, avoid what traps she laid for him and use the _Jūken _to fold her up just like any other ninja.

Secure in his plan of attack Sozen was moving the instant that Chouza said the word 'go'. He raced not toward the mushi bunshin before him nor at Chouza's shadow. Instead Shozen flung an explosive tag bearing kunai at an innocuous patch of grass. An innocuous patch of grass that roiled in alarm and split apart as Shigure and her allies pulled away from the explosive tag.

Sozen smiled grimly and increased his speed. The tag was a fake meant to create an opening. Shigure began running away but Sozen stayed with her even through shunshin. He himself used the technique not only to keep up with the Aburame but to avoid the wide variety of traps and occasional mushidama that the kunoichi tried to enclose him in. Often he only escaped by a hair's breadth and there was a cloud of insects chasing after them that Sozen could see out the back of his head.

He used jūken to prevent her from herding him toward her horde of flying insects, getting results even from glancing blows. The spectators in the stadium watched spellbound as the fast paced match continued. It was a literal running battle full of explosions, fancy taijutsu and the black cloud of kikaichu that looked like a monster in the background. Finally he caught her. Using a blast of chakra to disperse a small wall of kikaichu that Shigure tried to put between them so as to buy herself more time, Sozen managed to land a direct hit to Shigure's hara.

He watched impassively as the kunoichi coughed up spittle and blood that splashed against his cheeks. The kikaichu that had been following them dispersed into a confused mass without Shigure's chakra to direct them.

"It's over." Sozen stated, "Give up, any more and the kikaichu within your body will turn against you."

Shigure was beaten on the ground and bleeding from internal injuries. Still she groaned out, "I am… an ambush predator…" and then she smiled as if her words explained it all.

Sozen noticed three things a second too late.

There was a bug on his face…

Shigure's backpack was gone…

The innocuous patch of grass that he was standing on… wasn't really grass…

Had she been conscious Shigure might have added a fourth point out of spite. The green beetles swarming Sozen shook out their wings in a mating display for the female sitting on his nose. The shimmering scales that fell from their wings were poisonous. Chouza called it a draw, called in the medics and called in the Aburame to deal with the out of control kikaichu. The intermission between matches was well spent chasing down confused insectoid stragglers.

The Konoha chunin evaluators made more notes of the fights so far. The Leaf genin were all good fighters for genin. Hiko and Benitsu showed excellent use of shinobi technique but probably weren't quite ready for promotion. Shigure like Fukurou showed great calm and clarity of thought under duress and while it might have been better to surrender once she found herself being sent on the run, leading her opponent into a trap and taking him with her when outmatched showed chunin-like attributes that possibly would have led to a victory had she not faced Shozen alone. Shozen and Itachi showed great promise. The examiners were on the fence regarding the Hyūga who was certainly a great fighter, Itachi would be the one evaluated based on his next performance.

After nearly a day of matches the final match of the chunin exams was about to begin. It was almost as an afterthought that the new judge for the Mizukage was announced. The man with the strange one-eyed mask was totally ignored in favor of the two genin that everyone wanted to see fight.

Uchiha Fukurou

Uchiha Itachi

Several pairs of eyes tracked their progress down into the competition grounds. Most were men and women of little consequence but certain persons would make life changing decisions upon what happened in the fight that was about to begin.

"_I will pick the tool with the weaker will…"_

"_I will choose the one with the stronger eyes…"_

"_I will need the vessel that can best serve my ambitions…"_

"_I will want the child most useful to the clan…"_

"_Itachi/Fukurou do you carry the Will of Fire?"_

"_Fukurou/Itachi can you walk the Path of Darkness?"_

"_Itachi/Fukurou can you lead this clan to greatness?"_

"…_this village to greatness?"_

"…_this country to greatness?"_

"…_this world?"_

Uchiha Madara relaxed in full view, _"Show me something interesting…"_

To some, the start of the match was anticlimactic. Itachi and Fukurou simply stood there for a time, not talking nor speaking. The advisors for the various daimyo spread the word that this was typical of a genjutsu battle fought purely in a mental realm. The Hyūga that were in attendance could have easily confirmed this from the high activity of the Uchiha's forebrain. Still, it was a bit boring, one could only guess what was happening and the crowd began to slowly grow restless.

Itachi had known that Fukurou was close to being immune to genjutsu but he still went ahead and tried to ensnare his cousin in one. It was a means to measure his capacity as Shisui put it. The winner could then at least answer one question. Between Itachi and Fukurou, whose eyes were stronger?

For Itachi that answer had come the very instant he matched stares with Fukurou. A nine year-old, even a skilled nine year-old like Itachi was no match for the century plus experience that lay behind Fukurou's sharingan. What was taking so long was the fact that Fukurou for once, wasn't passively allowing Itachi's attack to just slide off his shields. He locked Itachi in a logical impossibility, one of the many that Harry Potter had encountered in his eighties when collaborating with renowned magical researcher Hermione Weasley with her visionary but ultimately doomed research into the link between science and magic.

Muggles had come quite a way by the year twenty sixty-six, Hermione had bullied him into getting a proper secondary education rather than mope about the house alone waiting for his children to call. Getting his bachelor's degree at one hundred and five had been accomplished out of sheer boredom. A lifetime of magic, battle and academic study made Harry Potter's mind a fortress that had been formidable in his own life. This child trying to rummage around in Fukurou's head was so out of his depth it wasn't funny, the knowledge that Fukurou held and his unique training was simply beyond this world's ken. Eventually Fukurou was kind enough to show Itachi the door before he hurt himself.

To the sharingan users that watched, it was obvious who held the stronger eyes. The rest of the spectators were simply caught off guard when Itachi suddenly launched a cottage-sized fireball that Fukurou countered with one of his own. With the two ninjutsu clashing as a distraction, Itachi used shunshin to strike from outside of Fukurou's range of vision. The kick to the face was blocked by a crossed arms guarding against it and Itachi countered by latching onto the ground with his hands and chakra, then delivering a devastating mule kick that broke through Fukurou's guard.

Still standing on his hands, with Fukurou off kilter, Itachi lashed out at his cousin's shoulder with a blow that broke the boy's collar bone with an audible snap. Twisting his body and flipping upright, Itachi's left hand snaked out and grabbed the reeling boy by his shirt pulling him in for a haymaker. Followed by a strike to the gut, an upper cut finished with a spinning back heel kick that broke Fukurou's jaw.

Fukurou seemed to slump in the firelight before collapsing into mud. The _Doton: Kage Bunshin_ reformed itself and latched on to Itachi. The construct held on long enough for an arrow to jet through the dying fires and imbed itself in Itachi's back. The crowd went wild at the back and forth motion of the fight and was mesmerized as the tides of battle turned yet again.

The Itachi that was struck through the back turned out to be an earth release kage bunshin as well. Itachi used shunshin to race toward the location from the arrow had been sent at his clone, unerringly he following the chakra string to its source. Realizing at the last second that Fukurou's team excelled at laying traps, Itachi skidded to a stop and instead sent brace after brace of shuriken at different speeds along convergent paths. The shuriken struck the ground at various points along his previous path, activating a collection of traps. Peering as closely as he could at the hidden figure beneath the charred pile of logs, Itachi found that he could recognize that it too was earth clone.

He bit his teeth in frustration at that. Using the copied technique just once had nearly drained the nine year-old. Exhausted Itachi wheeled around and drew his ninjato in a swift movement. The blade dipped under the paralytic tipped arrow and batted it aside. The two boys simultaneously used shunshin to dash at each other. Ninjato clashed against tanto. The tanto broke and Itachi's sword placed itself against Fukurou's neck even as wind chakra extended from the broken tip of Fukurou's dagger and pressed against Itachi's chest.

For a moment all was silent.

Chouza opened his mouth to call the match when Itachi suddenly spoke up. "I give up. I'll run out of chakra in the next few seconds," He explained, "It seems that I don't have enough experience yet to properly measure my capacity…"

From there it was up to Fukurou to catch his cousin without disemboweling him or slitting his own throat on a loosely dangling ninjato.

* * *

Itachi hadn't been promoted to chunin although Elder Danzo himself had stopped by with a few encouraging words for them both. Fukurou and Shigure from Konoha, along with Yuki Aika from Kiri were the only ones promoted to chunin. His clan had been ecstatic and Mikoto-san promised to train with him from time to time. It was late in the night several days later before new chunin, Uchiha Fukurou made it to home to Kokoro Forest.

_He wanted him_

_He wanted him_

_He wanted him!_

_That body!_

_That potential!_

_Those eyessssssss!_

_The white snake shadowing Fukurou opened its jaws wide…_ a pale hand reached out toward the back of the young Uchiha.

_He wanted him_

_He wanted him_

_He wanted him!_

_But first!_

Orochimaru had been putting off cleaning his underground lair for months. The conditions were simply unhygienic for a proper scientific study of Fukurou-kun's anatomy. What if the poor boy died before he was done? Better to clean up a bit at home before bringing over a guest for a proper vivisection. He looked at the opened corpses lining the walls of the refrigerated lab. _"Maybe a bit of dusting is in order?"_ he mused.

He was just finished disinfecting a number three bone saw when the Sandaime and his AnBu burst into the room. Looking into his sensei's horrified eyes Orochimaru couldn't help but feel slightly self-conscious. _"Ah! I wasn't finished with the cleaning yet…"_

* * *

**AN: This is more than twice the size of my usual chapters and since I am my own Beta reader, it took a while to get done. Read and review.**

**TTFN**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of ANBU, New Eras and An End to Peaceful Days**

* * *

Owl resealed the bow. The Onmyōton infused arrow went unnoticed as it phased through the nobleman's skull, simulating a stroke as it sapped at the chakra within the man's brain causing irreparable damage. It was unlikely that the man would die. This was just to send a message to the people who would condone negotiations made in bad faith. That man, should he survive, wouldn't ever be able to walk or talk without remembering this day.

Grasshopper signaled them to get ready. _'Cloud shinobi coming in fast from the north-west,'_ the hand signs grew more urgent. 'Jinchuriki,' they said, _'Enemy Sensor.'_

Wonderful, they were going to be sent running for their lives by an enemy that would be suicide to fight and nearly impossible to hide from.

"_What was the point…"_Owl wondered, _"Of hiding from retribution, when my missions end with being hunted by cloud shinobi anyway?"_

Wolf, Crow, Owl and Grasshopper were chased by a thirteen year old Nii Yugito and her team all the way from Lightning Country to Waterfall Country. _Persistent..._

* * *

Fukurou had been a chunin with six months of experience when Hiko and Itachi were promoted in the next scheduled exam. Fortunately it was held in Hidden Grass or rather the vicinity of it. Konoha had judged sending Itachi to be an acceptable risk and Hiko had also gone along as part of another team of genin. Though Fukurou wasn't able to attend the tournaments of the final round, Hiko evidently was able to impress the judges, given that he had managed to earn his promotion.

That year, when the three of them reunited as chunin with their sensei, Chun Chu informed them that she was retiring. Fukurou wasn't surprised. Chun Chu was twenty-nine years old and had served as a shinobi for twenty-one of those years. With a spouse, a child and two successful businesses she had no financial need to stay in service and every reason to retire. Fukurou had known how his sensei felt about the matter of her career since that first day of their genin test. She worried constantly about leaving her husband a widower and her child an orphan.

On the other hand Chun Chu knew her services were needed on the front lines during the war and had stayed on during the tense times afterward as a jounin-sensei. When she had given them the news of her retirement, Chun Chu had told them this, "I never wanted to leave me husband and child, I always yearned to return home. I tempered those feelings while in the field with the thought, 'If not me then who will protect my family?' I held that thought close to my heart every time I left my daughter to go on a mission."

She gave them a beautiful smile, "Now I can go home with the thought that there are three fine Konoha shinobi that I trained. In whom my trust will never falter. I can finally put my mind at rest knowing that who, will be you, if not I." She smiled at Hiko who was blubbering. "Well it's not as if we won't be seeing each other in the village."

It was true. Chun Chu had no intention of cutting ties with the team or village. Rather than protect her family by going out on missions she instead opened a dojo. The training hall was in a neighboring lot to the smithy and weapons shop and got a lot of foot traffic. Chun Chu was well known and many Konoha chunin, genin and even a few academy students attended for extra training in martial arts. Through his sharingan, Fukurou even discovered that there were AnBu there to take lessons. Two of the assistant instructors for the advanced classes were also AnBu agents, working there as jiujutsu instructors, a civilian cover due to the flexible hours.

The old team gathered at the dojo at least once a week when they could. Shigure was most often out on assignment. Her skills as a tracker made her the popular choice for search and rescue missions. Her trap making and close combat skills meant that she was often the first pick out of her clansmen. She brought them tales of rainy days spent slogging through the mud with people she didn't know trying to kill her. No specifics of course, just enough to rile up Hiko over how cool her missions were. Fukurou believed it was just a matter of time before Shigure was tapped for AnBu service if she wasn't already.

Hiko, by-the-seat-of-his-pants not last of his class Hiko, was an academy instructor. Chun Chu and Shigure teased him mercilessly over that. He spent his days going on the occasional mission when not seeing to the care and education of tomorrow's youth. His stories were a litany of complaints about ungrateful brats, snot nosed punks and cheeky little pranksters. His skills as a chakra sensor made him a legendary figure in anti-truancy circles, the automatic arch-villain of many a schoolchild's fantasy. Fukurou didn't doubt that there were great things in his teammate's future if only the boy would be patient.

In the end, Hiko never did get a date with Yuki Aika. When he wondered what happened to her Shigure promptly informed him that the Yuki clan had been purged in another one of Mist's regional conflicts. She did so with relish, Fukurou privately wondered if Shigure fancied Hiko. Their bickering reminded him of another couple Old Harry had known.

As for Fukurou, he had started as a junior officer within the Konoha Military Police Force. Very quickly he had realized that his image of the organization had been slightly biased by Harry Potter's past experiences. He had gone into the situation with an image of them being like the Aurors Corps. Wizards that policed wizards, enforcing the law and making sure that both the magical and non-magical sides of the divide that was the Statute of Secrecy remained safe. Of course, as he'd grown to better understand his world that idea had altered to accommodate the military culture and sheer paranoia that reached into every facet of his life.

It added up to a reasonable approximation of the way things truly were. To quote Fugaku, the members of the military police were, "Elite shinobi that watched over their fellow shinobi."

The primary functions of the military police were divided into domestic security, combat zone security, criminal investigation, correctional custodianship and the reserve defensive guard. The military police force guarded Konoha and its local environs against infiltration by foreign shinobi, kept track of outsiders, patrolled and guarded medium level security points like the village archival library, the hospital, the village aqueduct system and warehouse districts. They held the power to arrest both shinobi and civilians and to retain suspicious individuals subject to the limitations imposed by the law.

Fukurou spent the first three and a half weeks learning the ins and outs of the police system as a trainee. During times of war, security operations were extended to guarding the perimeter of battlefield triage and command bunkers. The military police enforced the law and investigated crimes reported or discovered subject to the severity of the breach of the legal code. They helped guard shinobi prisons and as needed, supported the village during times of emergency as peacekeepers and a final line of defense.

It was a job wide in scope that carried weighty responsibility. It was also familiar work if certain parts of Fukurou's job were more emphasized than in Harry's old Auror days. You were constantly on watch for infiltrators rather than responding to calls about cursed toilet seats in some muggle train station bathroom. Fukurou wondered if at some point in time he'd have to deal with coming across some sabotuer trying to poison the water supply or an infiltrator killing him for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was entirely possible such an encounter was just a matter of time.

That was the real difference between Harry's world and Fukurou's. For Fukurou, it was Voldemort's terrorism all over again. Everyone wanted a piece of Konoha, their clan bloodlines, their secret techniques or their power. Fukurou's most exciting day since completing his training had been to break up a fight, between a couple of drunk chunin, in October before things got serious. He'd hypnotically suggested that they were tired and left them in the lock-up to sleep the booze off. His relatives often looked at Fukurou with pity. His colleagues seemed disbelieving of the fact that he preferred police work to something more likely to garner a promotion to jounin. They just didn't understand how he could be happy like that.

Or perhaps it was Fukurou who didn't understand his relatives. Talking to Mikoto in unguarded moments revealed to Fukurou the woman's intense desire to see her clan live and flourish in peace. Paradoxically there was also an incongruous undertone of battle lust to the thoughts that she projected. It was there, even when speaking of how cute her son Sasuke was. It was as if she really meant, '_He's going to be a magnificent shinobi'_ whenever she said _'He'll become a fine young man'_. There was a fierce warrior pride that all his clansmen, from his boss Tekka to Aunt Uruchi working in the Uchiha Senbei shop carried within them. They were warriors, the best of the best the prodigy of prodigies.

The closest thing to it that Harry had ever seen was at a quidditch world cup where pride in one's national team substituted for pride in the clan. Everybody and their grandmum had a stake in it. Fukurou, who just wanted to live his life as best he was able; somehow against his will was now the team mascot. He got the feeling that if he didn't show some initiative in distinguishing himself to the Hokage, a feat that normally earned you a place on the Hero's Memorial; and an early grave, they were going to kick him off of the force. The clan saw Fukurou and Itachi as symbols and their progress as shinobi a mark of pride. Fukurou had no say in the matter, taking life easy simply wasn't allowed.

It was even worse at the clan meetings that he was now obligated to attend. People groused over their jobs, over not having a greater say in village affairs. Whether it was paranoia or there really was a conspiracy to discriminate against his clan Fukurou couldn't say. The sentiment mostly came from the older members of the clan. Many of them seemed to have joined the military police force due to a dearth of positions within the upper echelons of Konoha's other military branches, particularly the AnBu forces.

Privately Fukurou thought it a matter of wounded pride. Konoha Military Police Force authority began and ended with the Hokage. If an investigation was judged to have strayed upon matters of village security, it fell into the jurisdiction of the AnBu who were supposed to answer only to the Hokage. Thus, the Hokage could kill any investigation or legal proceeding by declaring the matter classified. This happened occasionally Fukurou believed, when the police happened across an infiltrator that had been turned or was being used to bait a trap.

Fugaku also had to submit a copy of every arrest or search warrant to the Hokage for approval. In the case, as so often happened, that the perpetrator was a shinobi and the crime warranted more serious action than being thrown in a cell to sober up. Fugaku also had to turn over every bit of evidence gathered for review by the Hokage's Office. What irritated the clan was that none of their members were ever chosen for the AnBu details that pursued investigations deemed classified or sat on the review boards.

This was to prevent a conflict of interest from forming but many in his clan found that to be insulting even if it were true. There were no Uchiha with a special advisory position in the Hokage's Office, among any of the AnBu Divisions or even a leadership role on the committees that handled trade and village finances. At least that was what Fukurou learned from a half hour of listening to his elders grumbling. The situation uncomfortably reminded him of Slytherin House. The Uchiha clansmen felt that they weren't being trusted and so closed ranks with each other.

It was the sort of situation that caused bad feelings to fester. From Harry's experiences Fukurou knew that something had to be done about it before the situation got out of control. The world wars of his past life told Fukurou that all it would take was an agitator to send things out of control and it would be one more bloodbath in this world of shinobi. This realization and the fact that he really had no say in the matter meant Fukurou frequently left early or with Mikoto's blessing, helped babysit Sasuke and the other children using the task as an excuse to not attend the dreary meetings. Itachi though junior to Fukurou had to stay as he was the son of the clan leader.

Truly, Fukurou pitied Itachi.

One night, Fukurou was on patrol while holding a leaf in his hand. As he slowly moved through the streets he mentally went over the instructions from his training manual. Just as when he used Onmyōton, Fukurou separated his chakra into two parts. Instead of focusing on the concepts of 'Light' and 'Dark' however, he sifted through the chakra he was generating, separating it into what felt 'positive' and 'negative'. An attractive force developed between the two masses of chakra and he kept his chakra separated as that attraction grew.

The energy quickly slipped from his control and in his mind's eye Fukurou sensed his chakras slam together with a burst of energy that raised the hairs on his skin. The release of energy forced the clashing chakras apart, only for them to collide again. This created a series of high frequency electrical pulses that Fukurou channeled into the leaf, causing it to crinkle. With a sigh, he dropped the leaf and took another from his pocket.

The extra time he had for personal training was another reason why Fukurou didn't begrudge his lot. His junior rank meant that his patrol hours were atrocious, either late at night or early in the morning. While these times were peak hours for shinobi on covert missions, there were few civilians around in the strrets and most stores were closed. It was quiet and Fukurou was able to get in a lot of time with his leaf exercises without being bothered, nothing ever happened.

Of course, things could still go wrong but Fukurou no longer felt as tense after the day's celebration. A leading ninja from Kumo had arrived to sign a peace treaty. It was a sign that the tense relations between the great nations after the war were beginning to normalize. Things seemed to be going well. It was with that thought in mind that Fukurou turned into the Hyūga district just as a masked ninja leapt over the wall of the compound.

There was a brief moment of shock as they looked at each other. Fukurou hadn't been complacent in his patrol duties. His sharingan was on and he had cast his 'sneaking spells' making him silent and difficult to notice. This guy had almost landed on him and he was alert enough that their close proximity rendered those mild spells useless.

The moment passed and the one-eyed bandit, he was carrying a sack over one shoulder, pulled a kunai. Fukurou sliced it apart with a wind enhanced leaf shuriken. Adrenalin flooded both their veins as the now one-armed bandit, the shuriken having cut more than just the kunai. Dropped the sack he had been holding and brought his other hand up to strike at Fukurou with a lightning covered fist.

"_**Sleep!" **_

There were two thumps at Fukurou's sharingan backed command. One was before him and the other behind. Spinning around at the noise he found an older Hyūga male lying prone in the middle of the road.

"_He must have had the Byakugan active when I used it…"_ Fukurou realized.

Muffled whimpers from the sack and wriggling drew his attention next.

"Bastard!" He breathed. There was a child in there he realized when he opened the sack. The girl's pale lavender eyes identified her as a Hyūga after he removed her blind fold. Her wide, frightened eyes looked into his and grew even wider when she looked behind him. Upon removing the ropes that bound and gagged her, the girl cried out, running past him to Hyūga the on the ground.

"Chichiouya!"

Fukurou formed a shadow clone and had it monitor the girl and her father while he policed the kidnapper's body. The man was still alive but bleeding out fast from the stump at his elbow. It was a clean cut and Fukurou could have saved the arm by reattaching the separated limb using iryōninjutsu adapted healing spells. Looking over his shoulder as the sobbing girl, he cauterized the cut, clamping firmly down on the man as he bucked in pain before fainting from the agony and another sharingan enforced command.

Standing grimly, ignoring the scent of cooked flesh, he called it in. The Hyūga guards came first, summoned by Hiashi after Fukurou woke him up much to his daughter, Hinata's relief. Next there came his colleagues in the police force, followed closely by AnBu. In the end the Hokage was awoken and called to the secure wing of the Konoha Hospital. There Fukurou learned that the kidnapper was Gashira, the dignitary sent by Kumogakure to sign the peace treaty with the very hand Fukurou had cut off. It seemed to Fukurou that his peaceful days were coming to an end.

* * *

**AN: I have a few polls that are going to be alternating on my profile page. They represent some of my pondering on this story's future direction. Don't be alarmed, they're not spoilers, I would just like to see what future events and abilities were preferred by readers. None of the listed options are really what 'will' happen, just generalities.**

**TTFN**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Patsies, ANBU and Changing Times**

* * *

Owl washed his face, scrubbing his hair furiously. Itching powder again, and something foul in the gas filter of his mask. If he complained he'd probably be told, _'Take that as a lesson to always check your gear probie.'_

Like any small, elite military organization AnBu field operators were close knit as a group. They depended on each other for their lives and needed time to figure out if they could trust newcomers. They were also elitist jerks who hazed their new recruits mercilessly. Five missions and he still wasn't one of them. They messed with his mask, something that would normally earn you a beating. One didn't mess with people's gear. But they called it training and heaven forbid he couldn't take it with a smile. But taking it with a smile also had other connotations that led to trouble.

They pushed him to see whether he would bend or break. The pranks weren't just good funning, they wanted to see what made him tick. Rooster didn't like him; well she didn't like geniuses as a whole. Wolf didn't really care and Sparrow and Ox thought he was cute even if he was a noob. Grasshopper was too relieved not to be the butt of the pranks anymore to say anything and Crow was just waiting to trade him for someone with more experience. They wanted to know how far they could push him?

The members of Owl's squad walked into the changing room and collectively had an uncontrollable bowel movement thanks to a bowel loosening seal Fukurou hid in the doorframe...

Minutes later, the cherry bombs in the toilet bowls went off to a chorus of splashing, and screams of both outrage and disgust. Owl simply grinned as he scrubbed his hair.

* * *

The council meeting was understandably tense. The Sandaime and his advisors Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura sat at a table before an assembly of clan heads and jounin leaders. The clan heads were seated in groups according to personal and political ties within the auditorium. The jounin leaders and were at the back or stood along the walls grouped by profession. No one could speak for a second as they collectively felt a sense of affront as the incident was recounted to them by the Hokage with the aid of Hyūga Hiashi and a KMP officer.

"Disgraceful…" Aburame Shibi summed up their thoughts.

"To pull something like this, after all the wars and sacrifices, those bastards! Are they mocking us? Damn them!" Inuzuka Tsume groused from her chair. It was a sentiment shared by several of the shinobi sitting in the room.

"Hokage-sama," Nara Shikaku spoke up, "What was the response of the Kaminari no Kuni diplomat to our report of the incident."

The Sandaime sighed, "The official stance of Kumogakure is that Gashira was attacked without provocation. They categorically deny any knowledge of a mission to kidnap Hyūga clansmen. They demand that Konoha show proof of Gahsira's well being and that we surrender him to the diplomatic envoy for evaluation."

Koharu chimed in, "We have been accused of using this peace treaty as a means to assassinate a candidate for the position of Raikage."

"Hotaru-dono, the Kaminari no kuni diplomat demands that Konoha hand over the one responsible for Gashira'a injuries." Homura informed them.

Danzo, normally silent in the corner of the room spoke, "They're lying through their teeth of course. All of this bluster is just a ploy to get at the byakugan. The Cloud envoy seemed under the impression that Gashira was dead. Their initial demand was worded as 'His killer must be brought to justice in the courts of Kaminari.' When we informed them of Gashira's survival, they then demanded proof of his… 'wellbeing'."

"I see," said Akimichi Chouza, "He wasn't intended to survive to begin with. But how could they be sure he was dead?"

"Fukurou-kun helped us there inadvertently," Yamanaka Inoichi answered. "I was snuck in to do a discreet interrogation while he was still unconscious. The medics found neurotoxin capsules imbedded in the flesh of his back and a cyanide pill in a false tooth. The real kicker though is what happened with the arm Fukurou-san cut off." He told them, "A curse seal below the elbow went off, lightning release, stopped the heart of the medic that was preparing it to for reattachment in the next room over. By the time they revived him, the AnBu medics were able to find and seal off three more implanted kill switches on Gashira including one on his other arm."

"The security barriers probably stopped them from going off," Shikaku deduced, "They were put up as soon as we knew who we were dealing with." He turned his sharp dark eyes to regard a worried looking Hiashi. "One way or another they planned to get at the Byakugan. Most likely, accusing Hyūga-dono of murder was their intent all along. It would have worked as long as Gashira died while in our custody. If they couldn't get your daughter they'd simply demand a Main House Hyūga as compensation."

"As long as Gashira is alive they don't have a leg to stand on." Fugaku noted, "They'll either serve him up as a scapegoat or play the outrage card as far as it will take them."

"Most likely the former, as much as the Sandaime Raikage would like to get his hands on the Byakugan, negotiations held in bad faith will negatively impact Kaminari no kuni as a whole." Shikaku commented to the room.

"Will just we accept this?" Tusme fumed angrily. Hiashi bowed his head, showing no indication of the deep emotions that stirred within him.

There were murmurs of discontent from the jounin at the back before Koharu silenced them with her words, "We cannot afford a war at this time. While these negotiations were but a ploy, Gashira's survival is an embarrassment to Kumogakure that we can use to force their compliance."

"Your nephew did good…" Chouza told Fugaku, "Had it gone down any other way we might have been at war, or worse."

Hiashi nodded, "Please convey to Fukurou-san my thanks as well." He said stoically.

"He simply did his duty as a proud shinobi of the Leaf and an officer of the Military Police, to help maintain the safety and security of the village. Nonetheless I will convey the fact that his efforts are appreciated." Fugaku responded with false modesty.

"Defeating an experienced jounin is an impressive feat for chunin with less than a year of experience, even one that is an Uchiha. Severing Gashira's arm was a masterful stroke, an excellent first strike, whether by instinct or luck." Chouza said, "Pretty embarrassing too, to let a ten year old get the drop on you."

Shikaku continued his friend's thoughts to their logical conclusion, "When Kumogakure finds out who was responsible for their embarrassment, Fukurou-kun might be in for some trouble though."

Fugaku, Danzo and the Hokage shared a look. They would be talking later about how to resolve that issue.

The meeting ended with Konoha resolved to force Kumo into ratifying the peace treaty, by using Gashira's actions as leverage. It was an embarrassment no matter how Hidden Cloud chose to spin the story. The testimony of Hyūga Hiashi, several guards, Konoha Military Police officers, the Hokage and AnBu outweighed any possible defense of Gashira's actions. He had been caught red-handed by a young chunin and apprehended alive with the young heiress of the Hyūga clan in a burlap sack.

The mortification that Kumogakure experienced over the incident was ameliorated only slightly by Konoha's acceptance of Gashira's 'confession' that he had been acting on his own. He was tried for treason, due to his actions being an embarrassment to Hidden Cloud. He was accused of having acted out of hubris and a misguided desire to distinguish himself as a Raikage candidate without thought for the possible ramifications of his actions. Officially, both Konoha and Kumo denounced the formerly respected ninja as a traitor and upon being convicted Kumo executed him and shipped his body to Konoha where it was buried in an unmarked grave.

The Sandaime Raikage died soon after the Hyūga Incident and the Yondaime Raikage, Ā, the son of the late Sandaime signed the peace treaty in person. He made no acknowledgement of Gashira's actions beyond a brief and vaguely worded statement. He made no promises of further cooperation with the Leaf, no talk of alliances and no commitment to the move toward disarmament, something that even Iwa had agreed to do. The Yondaime Raikage was taken to be a brash and rambunctious young fool with no respect for the sins of his elders or the fragility of the world's peace, seeking only to strengthen Kumo.

He made no mention of the five million ryo bounties placed separately on Fukurou's head and eyes. He said nothing of the similar, ten million ryo bounty that remained on every unbranded Hyūga's eyes. He made no mention of the very cold war that developed between Leaf and Cloud, fought by shinobi in darkness in person and by proxy before the ink had a chance to dry on a peace treaty that wasn't even worth the paper it was written on.

Joining the AnBu had involved remaining silent during a fifteen minute meeting with his clan leader, the Hokage and Elder Danzo, the sinister-looking commander of Konoha's special assassination and tactics squad. Fugaku assured him that he was bringing honor to the clan as one of the youngest members to ever join the organization. The Hokage assured him that this was only a temporary measure, that it was for his own protection and training; and that he wouldn't be sent on any assassination missions for the foreseeable future. Danzo gave Fukurou no assurances, only the creeps with a speech about the dark side of the force that reminded him of a movie Dudley had talked about once

True to the Hokage's words Fukurou's days were spent in the village training with other chunin level recruits to be trained killers. By this time in his career Fukurou had killed several times, usually in self-defense. Nonetheless for all of that he still felt uneasy with joining a group he believed to be professional assassins. He didn't say anything but it killed him inside.

Also as had been promised, Fukurou's first four months were spent in physical training and studying. His lessons included some subjects that he was familiar with, dynamics, college level math, basic first-aid; and some subjects he was not, like orienteering, advanced wilderness survival training in a wide variety of conditions and battlefield triage. Regardless of whether or not the subjects were familiar Fukurou thought that Old Harry would have found the applications either appalling or bemusing.

'_Calculate the angles at which a kunai must be thrown by subject A at set distance of X, and arrives at time T, with a north-north-west wind of speed of Y, in order to hit his target, subject B. Take into account the use of chakra. Calculate the velocity of the kunai given that it is thrown at Z degrees to the horizontal and perform the corresponding calculations for subject B given that he dodged the kunai and now stands in a tree of elevation Q.' _

Hypothetical kunai throws aside there were classes on how to properly prepare an enemy's body for retrieval with different procedures for different conditions depending on how many pieces there were to collect. They studied anatomy with a focus on the best ways to dispose of a missing nin or how best to torture a subject to extract information.

Fortunately, enduring interrogation techniques was an advanced class for later. Fukurou was simply given SERE training that involved being locked in a freezer for a nght, surviving in for weeks in training ground forty-four without equipment, and finally being flogged for several hours while a special jounin named Ibiki made him and others recite the ninja code from memory. It was mind-numbing, wearying work. Designed to breakdown recruits and rebuild them into what the AnBu corps needed them to be. It was a dehumanizing experience and Fukurou found himself not totally immune to being affected. His occlumency dulled his emotions and made the effects of the training seem more pronounced to his instructors. He at one time found himself involved in a debate with commander Danzo, coldly advocating the merits of murder, blackmail, physical and psychological torture as tools for dealing with an ally of suspect loyalty.

He knew, for all his success at training, breaking almost every record, Ibiki secretly considered him a sociopath. Danzo was afraid of what he might become. The Hokage was remorseful at the loss of his perceived innocence. Fugaku was wary, pleased but wary. He knew that none of them, not a single one of them, understood just what they were stirring awake deep within him. Voldemort's equal. The Master of Death and deeper still…

Fukurou's days off were spent at the dojo with his friends. Mikoto had given him the task of travelling to various Uchiha hideouts, safe houses, storage depots and old strongholds in order to evaluate the security of the locations. At her request he sometimes upgraded the defenses with his own fūinjutsu work. In a few cases he even warded the area with a fidelus seal, again at Mikoto's request, although unlike the other places placed protections on, these locations were known only to the two of them. He had no reason to question the request or the others that Mikoto would make. Fukurou found it difficult to say no to her and she asked no questions about how he did what he did assuming him to be a prodigy in just another area of shinobi life.

Likewise Fukurou asked no questions. Mikoto covered for him at the clan meetings and his training took up the rest his time. The errands that he ran for the clan doubled as his cover. It was an arrangement that Fukurou found himself peacefully accepting. It would be one of the last times in his life that Fukurou would ever be so quiescently unquestioning of shinobi affairs.

* * *

**AN: The polls change every two days or so, don't worry if you missed one or the other. Coming up on some important scenes in the next few chapters where the contrast between Old Harry and Young Harry manifest wihin Fukurou.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Darkness, Crows and Ninja Cats**

* * *

The Village Hidden in the Leaves had been built on a naturally defensible area that had been enhanced by the founding Shodaime, Senju Hashirama. The Senju Clan of the Forest held a long history of adaptation and survival in the woodlands of what would in time become Hi no Kuni and its border nations. True to their nature as ninja, there were several layers of secrets to the construction of the village. Some of these secrets were compartmentalized deliberately. As such, although the Sandaime Hokage and most high ranking jounin were fully aware of the shifting labyrinth of tunnels that lay below Konoha's streets, few realized the full extent of the depth and complexity of the system.

Only the Shodaime Hokage knew the true depths of Konoha's roots, spread so deep beneath the earth and so far beyond its walls that not even the Hyūga's eyes could see it all. Only the Niidaime, with his mastery of water ninjutsu could tell where all the waterways that served the village began and ended. Some were known and well guarded. Others led to traps so deadly that they were deliberately abandoned and in time forgotten by all but a few. Other waterways had served to carve a system of caverns that were located twice as deep beneath the village as the Hokage Monument towered high above it.

Crow walked into the depths of Konoha. Deeper than the aqueduct, deeper than the sealed underground escape tunnels, deeper than the AnBu training and detention facilities, on he walked, past pillars and roots covered in seal script and sutra, along catwalks that crossed dark chasms. He walked into the very root of Konoha. The security at this level was draconian. The slightest mistake would have resulted in his immediate termination. Hidden eyes watched him with blades at the ready, blank masks observed him unseen with hearts black with murder.

He walked along a corridor before stopping at an unmarked door that was identical to the thirty or forty others that he had passed along the way. Opening it, Crow stepped into a shadowy auditorium and walked to the back of it. He handed a scroll to the shinobi waiting there next to a projector and turned about, heading for the front of the room where a large screen was set up. He stood there in silence before the projector came on.

"As you have ordered Danzo-sama, I have compiled a presentation on the threat level of the AnBu agent Owl, real name: Uchiha Fukurou. Additionally for your perusal we have included an analysis of his abilities, their strengths and their limitations," Crow began his introduction as a diagram appeared on the screen.

Cast in shadow by the light surrounding him, Shimura Danzo watched and listened to the report.

* * *

AnBu field agents could be divided into those that carried out short, mid and long term missions. Short term missions usually included patrolling the forest surrounding Konoha, guarding high security areas and personnel; in-village training, information analysis, corpse examination and prisoner interrogation. These lasted from several hours to several days. For reasons of security the identities of most low level agents was kept hidden. To aid in this endeavor, schedules were irregular, shift changes were decided at the last minute and communication in the village was made via a system of messenger pigeons and certain signal hawks.

As a result, there was a sizeable population of Konoha ninja that worked assorted part time jobs from assistants in flower shops and chimney sweeps to martial arts instructors and gardeners. They all had a penchant for long-sleeved clothes that hid tattoos and enjoyed bird watching in their free time. These jobs were just a cover to explain their income and were chosen so as to allow an agent to be on call at any time and usually their 'day job' employers were ninja who knew not to ask too many questions when an employee didn't show up.

Fukurou had started out on short-term missions, he along with his team, ran a circuit through the woods behind the Hokage Mountain twice in the day and five times at night, alternating time and schedule with another team. On the days with no patrol duties he trained with Crow or Ox in Taijutsu, Wolf and Sparrow in ninjutsu, while Rooster and Grasshopper tried to find a genjutsu that would stick to him. It was grueling work and aside from two hours of sparring and a five hour team training exercise where they worked on joint tactics, each agent was encouraged to train on their own time in the well equipped grounds provided.

Fukurou's eleventh birthday saw him on his first mission of duration greater than three days in the field. He spent three weeks trekking through the land of Frost with Crow, Cat and an unknown agent called Spider. He wasn't told what the mission objective was, only to stay with the group and do as Spider ordered. They camped out in the woods while Spider visited towns near the border with Kaminari, sometimes disguised as a woman, sometimes as a man.

He had no idea what they were looking for or what Spider was doing and it took his occlumency enhanced patience not to try for a peek in Spider's mind with his sharingan. People reacted differently to a legilimens' probe. From Harry's memories he knew it was a matter of compatibility. He didn't so much as read their thoughts as he sympathized with them.

The memories of Old Harry served up a proper analogy. He'd gone a tad deaf in addition to his myopia. Wearing his glasses allowed him to see people's lips while they were speaking. Even if he couldn't hear all the words, there was enough getting through that lip-reading caught the rest and the missing words were not consciously noticed. That was what legilimency on a person he was compatible with was like. Legilimency with an incompatible person was hearing someone talk without lip reading. Even worse, some people that Fukurou had met, like Hiko could actually feel when he was 'squinting' at them.

They returned home without Owl having done anything, or any sign that the mission was a success or failure. Nonetheless, the members of the team were detained in isolation for a week while Spider and Crow debriefed as was standard protocol in order to maintain operational security. They then were given another week off which Fukurou spent in training with Mikoto-dono on clan territory aware that they were being observed.

Despite him having not asked her, Mikoto shared that those who went on long term missions could usually expect to be interrogated and observed for several months in order to unmask any sleeper agents that might be placed in the ranks of AnBu. By his third week long mission assignment, surveillance had dropped to the first three days after he was released. The quarantine time varied from a week to a few hours depending on the sensitivity of the mission and the personnel needed for consecutive assignments.

As the time Fukurou spent outside the village increased. His old cover of working in the filing room of the KMPD gave way to his reputation as a hermit and running periodic assignments for Mikoto-dono. The Uchiha Clan held an extensive library that included knowledge of seals, and both his AnBu records and the clan noted his above average talent in that area. If anyone but Mikoto had seen just what he could do they would have called him a prodigy.

As it was Fukurou followed several of Mikoto's requests to ward old Uchiha hideouts in exchange for being let off on attending the clan meetings which had by then turned into sessions of bitter complaining. He probably should have paid more attention to what was going on but as much as people were disgruntled, one clan going against an entire ninja village was suicide. Fukurou decided that the complaints during the meeting were simply a way of letting off steam. He kept an eye on the situation through his discussions with the closest among his cousins, Itachi and Shisui. It was in the midst of one of those discussions that the two boys gave him an idea for improving the defenses of the safe houses he was warding. With this in mind, he asked Mikoto to let him ward an ammunitions depot in Sora-ku.

* * *

Meeting Nekobaa in person had reminded him of someone. Fukurou paused at the entrance to the store and took it all in. Cats, cats, cats, cats, of every size shape and color, there was an old lady and a small girl carrying a box at the counter. Two cats wearing a mesh top and gi turned to look at him with unnaturally intelligent eyes. _"Mrs. Figg…"_ was the name that stirred up from the depths of memory.

He walked up to the old lady who could only have been Nekobaa, she was wearing a plastic headband with cat ears over a wild mane of grey hair that flared around her head a bit like a lion's. Her nose was blackened with make up to look like a cat's and her first words upon seeing him were, "Tamaki, look we have a visitor, nyaa…"

The caretaker of the depot and her daughter were helpful in exchange for adding their shop to the defensive cover of the barrier. They not only showed him where the old defenses were, a series of traps that protected the armory storing the clan's surplus weaponry, but provided detailed information on the beings he was looking for.

"You sure you want to go there boya?" The ninja cat in the blue gi asked him in a purring voice, "The Kurogarasu don't really mind visitors but their leader Kurotengu is really grouchy nyaa!"

"Nekomata-sama is even worse, nyaa," added Hina, the ninja cat in the pink gi, "You look strong, but Nekomata is no push over, nyaaa!"

"Itachi and Shisui-nii told me so as well but I'm doing this to help protect my clan's properties. I can hold my own if I must but what I'm going to propose will benefit them both." Fukurou answered diplomatically.

Nekobaa looked at him shrewdly, "Such a forward thinking outlook from one so young."

"I'm already a chunin though."He answered.

"Still, be careful of Kurotengu and Nekomata, it'll be interesting to see if you can pull something like this off at your age regardless of your rank."She stared at him a moment before smiling, "You're going to be a cutie in the future," she said, "Junichi, your father, used to visit regularly. You look just like him, except, you have your mother's eyes. He and Ririko made such a beautiful couple. Please come by again."

Fukurou withheld a shudder at the feeling those words evoked within him, and smiling politely, he withdrew from the store.

Back inside Nekobaa cocked her head to the side at a comment that Denka made, "Nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs you say? Ara? I wonder what I said, nyaa?"

Sora-ku reminded him a little of Old London before Hurricane Kenneth in 2035, and immediately after it. There were remnants of skyscrapers and broken down buildings reduced to rusted girders and exposed masonry, overgrown by weeds. The first place that he was heading was the tallest sky scraper in Sora-ku, or at least what remained of it. Shisui had told him a story about a race of crow summons that had taken up residence in the highest rafters. Shisui had tried and failed to win the favor of their leader as a child having proven unable to pass the test of getting to the top level of the tower.

Fukurou had a way of working around the deadly trap laden lower floors. It was the same way that the crows got around themselves. He focused carefully while watching one of the curious birds sitting on a line, looking right back at him. His sharingan took in every detail from the arrangement of feathers to the complex interplay of muscle, ligament and bone while in the midst of flight. It was a variation of a skill that Old Harry had secretly mastered late in life. Lacking the potions and spells used for aiding in the act of self-transformation, Fukurou instead had adapted the henge to serve his needs.

Usually, a henge was just an illusion. A more skilled practitioner could actually take the physical form of the object although there were limits to the degree that properties such as size and mass can differ between practitioner and the object or individual that he or she transforms into. This was a basic technique that draws upon the Yin and Yang chakra normally produced by a shinobi's body. Yin to create a form and Yang to give that form substance, the more Yang chakra that a shinobi invests the more 'real' the transformed object can become, including how great difference in mass and size the transformation allows.

Fukurou used the details gleaned by his eyes to craft an anatomically correct model of a crow within his mind, shaped it with Yin and then flooded his body with Yang as his hands formed the required seals.

"Henge!" he cried.

A puff of smoke later and a perfectly formed crow stood in his place. It wobbled a bit unsteadily as it adjusted to it's new dimensions before hopping around, spreading its wings experimentally, examining them with small beady sharingan.

The crow that had been watching flew down from the wire, landing on a rock, "Whoa…" it said to him in awe, "That's cool bro! How'dja do that bro? What's yer name there bro?"

Fukurou paused in his self-examination to regard the crow that was staring at him with shiny black eyes. Old Harry had been a bird animagus in his time, a species of falcon. While the birds he had met had been able to communicate with each other after a fashion it was more a system of cries and intuitively understood body language rather than the rapid fire questions in what seemed to be English. Or was it? Cocking his head, he responded, "Thanks, it's a technique that I know and you can call be Fukurou."

To Fukurou his words were perfectly delivered in English but turning his sharingan upon himself revealed that that simply wasn't possible given the way his body was vibrating, as if what he was really saying was, _"Caw, caw, cawcawcaw, cacaw."_ It seemed to be a situation akin to parseltongue. He understood the crow speech as a language that he was most familiar with and spoke it without being conscious that he was crowing.

"Owl? A crow named Owl? Why's a crow named Owl? An owl that was a man named Crow? A man that was a crow named Owl? A crow that was an owl called Man?" The creature seemed none too bright despite its power of speech, the crow was talking itself into dizzying circles as he watched.

"Um, none of the above," He said helpfully, "I'm a crow that was a man named Fukurou."

The bird stopped hopping in circles and looked at him closely, "How odd, bro, truly odd." It said.

Fukurou and the bird that introduced itself as Karasubito flew about for a while with Fukurou patiently answering his new friend's incessant questions as he got used to the motions of flight. Eventually the two made it to an opened window at the top floor forty stories high. Kurobito turned to the birds roosting along the sill and called out to them excitedly.

"Hey guys you'll never guess what I've found! This bro is a guy that can turn into a crow named Owl!" He said.

"Um… That's not quite what I…"Fukurou muttered.

But the birds in the room drowned him out, "What! Really? That's so cool bro! Yeah really bro! Whaz up, bro! Hey there, bro! Owl? That's a name, bro? Really bro? I don't believe ya bro! You're pulling my leg, bro!"

Fukurou silenced them by landing on the floor and releasing the transformation technique. There was a moment of silence before all the birds started flying about.

"_Caw!"_

"_Caw!"_

"_Caw!"_

"_Caw!"_

"**What's all of this damn racket about!"** a throaty voice roared from the depths of the building. It sent the crows scattering, flying away in every direction. A dark mass of feathers and muscle appeared upon a raised dais as lanterns lit the dark interior of the top floor. Roosting in a nest of silken blankets was an enormous bird wearing a cap strapped to his head. Fukurou raised an eyebrow at the fact that the thing clearly spoke a human language.

Shaking away his disbelief, Fukurou spoke, "With respect Kurotengu-dono, I have come to you as an envoy of the Uchiha clan with regards to a business offer that I would like to make to you and your kin." He then looked the old crow in the eye, flashing his sharingan momentarily, "I would also like ask you to share sake with me and allow me to become your summoner."

The boss crow seemed speechless for a moment before giving a grunting, cawing laugh, **"Well, you've got balls boy…you've got balls."**

Fukurou smiled, _"You have no idea."_

* * *

The scene at Nekomata's Cat Fortress was reminiscent of the last time it was visited by Uchiha Itachi. There was a trail of unconscious cat guards leading all the way from the entrance gates to the ruined tower where Nekomata himself lived. Said bakeneko was laid out on his back dazed from having been paddled over the head with Fukurou's uchiwa tessen.

"**T-that fan…"** The boss cat muttered dazedly. It squinted cross eyed as Fukurou was temporarily replaced with the image of another man, the summoner who had betrayed and abandoned him for more power. A brief surge of bitterness and rage surged within him but the dizziness did not abate and Nekomata fell onto his back with a groan.

Karasubito perched on the hilt of Fukurou's uchiwa cawing with laughter. "Bakaw, bakaaaw, bakabakabakaaa!"

The crow evoked another memory as Nekomata who was seeing double, percieved two red-eyed men, brothers that were standing side by side. One man had a large crow, a younger Kurotengu, sitting on his shoulder with his great black sweeping wings covering the human's side like a cloak. The other man stood with a fan and sickle connected by a spiked chain. _**"Izuna…Madara…"**_ Nekomata groaned internally, his memories tinged with both sorrow and longing.

His mind clearing slightly, the bakeneko looked upon Fukurou. **"You… want to hire my clan to help guard your people's fortresses? You… wish for my people… to become your summons…"**

There was a strange parallel in the behavior of the two bosses that he had met that puzzled Fukurou.

_Kurotengu spoke to him, yet at the same time, Fukurou sensed the boss summon was seeing someone else__**. "You want my clan to work with the Cat Clan in guarding the Uchiha safe houses that you have restored… that… is a task that the Crow Clan has performed once before, long ago during the warring era. We will… we agree…"**__ Kurotengu then turned his head to a side and focused a fiercely glaring eye upon Fukurou, __**"Your eyes, you seek power as do all Uchiha. Your eyes, they speak of a weariness not of this world. They belie your age… perhaps…perhaps if it is you…"**_

Nekomata was saying almost the same thing, **"If it is you… then perhaps it will be alright to answer when you call to us… but inevitably…"**

Kutotengu: _**"Inevitably…"**_

Nekomata: **"As one who shares 'their' blood…"**

Kurotengu: _**"There will come a time when your eyes may change…"**_

Nekomata: **"If they do…"**

Kurotengu: _**"And those eyes come to seek out only the darkness…"**_

Nekomata/Kurotengu: _**"Do not expect us to stand by your side while you destroy yourself!" **_

Fukurou had no idea what they were referring too, their emotions were too strong and the feelings too alien for him to understand but he agreed to their terms and signed a summoning contract with both species despite their ominous words. He returned home with Karasubito and a female tabby ninja cat called Haru as his bodyguard and retainer.

* * *

"To summarize," Crow said, "These are Uchiha Fukurou's stats as they currently stand."

A table appeared next to the graph.

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Age: 11**

**Parents: Uchiha Junichi, Father; Nou Ririko, Mother**

**Abilities**

**Ninjutsu: 4**

**Taijutsu: 3**

**Genjutsu: 5**

**Intelligence: 4.5**

**Strength: 3**

**Speed: 3.5**

**Stamina: 4**

**Hand Seals: 4.5 **

**Special Tools**:** Uchiwa Tessen, Recurve Bow and Arrows.**

"Tell me about his sharingan." Danzo ordered.

Footage began playing, compiled from the missions and training exercises that Fukurou had taken part in while a member of AnBu. Crow began speaking, "Our analysis compared Fukurou-san's observed ocular abilities to that of several known sharingan wielders on file. Observed factors include smooth pursuit vision, vestibulo-ocular reflex, visual fixation, optokinetic reflex, depth perception, chakra perception and predictive object tracking. In all of the above areas the subject conforms to the upper five percent of the population of sharingan users that display superior qualities and mastery of their bloodline. Extensive testing via exposure to agent codename: Rooster, has revealed a extremely high capacity for resistance to genjusu and a markedly advanced understanding and mastery of the field."

Danzo's expression was masked by the shadows, "Go on," he said.

"When tasked with the assassination of codename: Jin, during the mission on file number sixty-fourteen, code Shimodo, the subject attempted and succeeded in hitting a target area of roughly two centimeters across, from one kilometer away in a snowstorm with an arrow while both he and the target were in motion." Crow had seen the shot taken which was the only reason that he could say that without choking in disbelief. "We have also identified a similar ocular ability to the one observed from Uchiha Shisui. The subject was able to hypnotize both natural wildlife and people into obeying his will without them showing any sign of awareness that their actions were manipulated."

Danzo rubbed his scarred chin in thought, _"Interesting."_

"Conditions?"

"One was an owl in mid flight eight hundred meters above ground at night. The other was a pair of mist-nin in the midst of close combat with him. By making these men experience a series of false memories he had each believe that the other had turned traitor. These men appeared to be members of the same squad and familiar with each other yet they began fighting with one another in spite of having previously displayed exemplary teamwork in ambushing and attacking Owl." Crow told him.

_"Dangerous,"_ Danzo thought to himself, already making plans to have an intermediary meet with Fukurou from then on, _"Too dangerous,"_ Crow would need to have the memory of this briefing sealed as a precaution. Fukurou would need to be compartmentalized, his contacts controlled, his access to the Hokage limited.

Plans within plans rolled through Danzo's head, contingencies were made for the good of the Leaf. If ever Uchiha Fukurou proved a danger, a counter was needed. Plans within plans began to take shape. At their center, Shisui, Fukurou, Itachi…

* * *

**AN: Events start to pick up as Fukurou and Itachi turn thirteen. The fate of the Uchiha clan is decided, confrontations with enemies both new and old. Will Danzo move against Fukurou? What is the fate of the Uchiha Clan? How will Fukurou respond to the situation that he thus far has ignored? Shisui, Itachi and Fukurou, caught between village and clan, a confrontation that predates their birth.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Betrayals, Murders and a Shadow Play**

* * *

The man stood before a mirror in a candle lit room. Scrolls and folders could be seen arrayed on the shelves of what seemed like an office through the door behind him. Slowly with one hand, he unwrapped the bandages on the right side of his face, the strips of gauze fell away to reveal the scarred and wrinkled visage of Shimura Danzo. Within his right eye socket lay an active sharingan. He studied his reflection for a moment in thought, _"Fukurou, your sacrifice will ensure the supremacy of Konoha. May you be a greater asset to the village in death than you were as a traitor in life!"_

* * *

Itachi pondered the nature of reality and truth. He looked for an answer in the droplets of blood that dripped from the wound in his side. He searched for it in the ripples of the waters of the Naka no Kawa. He sought it in the eyes of his friend, his closest friend, Uchiha Shisui. It was he who, apart from Itachi and the reticent Fukurou, was the only one that could possibly have an answer for him.

"What is wrong with you Itachi! Your family! Your clan! Are you truly a traitor!" Shisui cried in disbelief. "What were you discussing with Danzo? Answer me or else!""

To love one's family, to love one's clan, to love one's village, to love one's nation, to fail to protect one is as bad as failing to protect the other. Itachi's soul yearned for peace and his family and clan threatened to plunge his village and nation into the chaos of war. It would happen even if the clan succeeded in their aims. The village would be weakened and the other countries would tear at the edges of Hi no Kuni as they had after the Kyūbi Incident and the Yondaime's death.

Konoha would be placed in a precarious position once again. His generation would be forced to make bitter sacrifices. The losses and lessons of their ancestors would come to naught. Fukurou answered to his mother Mikoto, who answered to his father one of the conspirators of the rebellion. Shisui to whom he looked to for advice had thrown in his lot with the clan regardless of the consequences to the village as a whole. The lives of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands depended on Itachi's decision. The one hundred and forty-seven members of his clan versus all the combined clans and families of the shinobi world lay in the balance.

Itachi's mind turned in circles seeking a way out, the only answer that had been presented gave him despair. The consequences of any other outcome that he could see were far more horrible. Perhaps there was hope for his clan if he could spare his brother. It would break his heart but in time the clan could be reborn. Sasuke had that potential, an enemy in Itachi would give him the eyes and will to endure. They were brothers, whether bound by hatred or by love Sasuke would grow strong fueled on their feelings for each other. It broke his heart to think like this but there was no other alternative for him, especially not after meeting that man….

Itachi turned his sharingan upon the one he called friend, his heart screaming out in turmoil, "Or else?" Itachi quirked a brow, subtly steeling his resolve for what was coming, "Or else what? What will you do Shisui?"

His cousin frowned heavily, Shisui's curly locks began to stand on end as chakra flowed to his sharingan and the tomoe began to revolve, "Itachi… you are my friend so you should know this clearly. No matter how talented you may be, I am still stronger than you are right now!"

Paradoxically, Itachi seemed to ignore the tense atmosphere. He turned away to stare into the waters that flowed in the ravine below. He closed his eyes in thought, seeming to let his guard down completely. "Is that so…" he said after a moment, "Is that is what you believe…"

He turned to see Shisui in the midst of an attack, kunai drawn to take his life. Itachi merely continued speaking as the blade moved to pierce him, "Reality is made up of a series of things that people believe to be true. But belief is subjective, what you think is true and not true is not the same for everyone else. Our varying beliefs can create different realities for each of us."

His tsuchi bunshin collapsed into loose soil, but there was a growing stain of blood from the shallow wound upon Itachi's chest. Thrown shuriken sparked, lighting the night air like fireflies as the bits of metal collided with each other. Shisui vanished as though he were a mirage. His ninjatō sliced into the side of Itachi's neck. The cut drew blood but that Itachi exploded into a murder of crows.

Shisui's eyes widened, "Shit!"

"Kai!" He cried, _but the world was still wrong._

"You say that I am weaker than you Shisui but your strength is merely an illusion."

It was becoming difficult to breathe, Shisui grimaced as the blood vessels in his eyes stood out.

"It seems that you can no longer accurately measure your capacity. I have already surpassed you long ago…"

Itachi held him under the water as Shisui's heels drummed against the riverbed. Shisui's hands grasping blindly as he stared blankly into Itachi's eyes. Their sharingan battled for supremacy in the realm of dreams and illusion. Itachi sweated heavily with exertion, this was an ability gained by seeking the very limits of his capacity, a mastery of illusions that hinged upon the power of his eyes, his mind and his strength of will.

One thousand two hundred and eighty-six sequentially applied illusions worked to suppress Uchiha Shisui as he lay submerged. He managed to break through nine hundred and sixty-three of them before he finally succumbed to drowning.

In his mind with the darkness closing in, Shisui had a final vision or perhaps, a hallucination before he died. The whole of Konoha lay before him with the Hokage Mountain dominating the skyline. His friends and family were arrayed before him, Mikoto nursing Sasuke and Fukurou babysitting his cousins. His surly uncles, placing bets with each other over the antics of their kids, for better or for worse they were a family.

"_Itachi, what were we to you?"_ He thought aloud.

The last thing he heard was a tearful whisper, "Forgive me, Shisui…"

Itachi let the body float away as his head turned to one side. One of Danzo's Root hovered in the trees somewhere behind him. It was more to confirm that he had killed his friend than any sort of altruism. The Yamanaka, as Itachi had identified him, had used a variation of his clan's distinctive techniques to take control of Shisui for those critical few seconds that Itachi had needed to overcome his cousin without injury. He would undoubtedly report back to Danzo about what had happened.

He kept himself impassive as he looked at the reflection of his Mangekyō Sharingan in the waters of the Naka River. He had no doubt that this battle had been arranged at the behest of Shimura Danzo as a last test of his loyalties. Danzo knew of the Mangekyō and had been the one to suggest that he obtain its powers. The original plan called for him to eliminate the clan with the help of Root and the Mangekyō. He turned back toward the Root base that Shisui had ambushed him outside of.

With Madara's aid, there would need to be changes to the plan. Itachi knew that he was playing a dangerous game being in the midst of three powerful forces. Madara would provide him with the support he needed from Akatsuki to eliminate his clan and protect his home. In exchange for so long as Itachi lived and worked with his organization Konoha would be safe. Danzo would ensure that no aid reached the Uchiha district in time to stop them. He would of course be warned about Akatsuki and Madara, the intelligence that he could provide or leak was Itachi's leverage to ensure the survival of Sasuke. Konoha would be safe from rebellion, warned of Akatsuki and in time through Sasuke, the Uchiha clan would rise again.

It was the best outcome of a host of bad choices. That was the plan he had come up with. As he walked into the darkened halls of the Root base Itachi began to put his play into motion. For some reason his eyes still hadn't stopped crying tears of blood…

* * *

Mikoto pondered the fate of her clan. She had searched for a way to save her family from destruction within the auspices of the Hokage. A carefully worded message during a visit to register Sasuke's shinobi academy application had resulted in a series of negotiations geared toward improving ties between the village and her clan. To her despair, the elders had taken to the overture the way one would take to a softly hissing snake.

There had long been a sense of dissatisfaction with the state of affairs. Her people had taken what action they could to ensure their safety and security in the field and at home. What had turned the situation murderous was a series of unsolved disappearances of Uchiha clansmen while on missions. Losing family in this way was not uncommon for ninja, but each and every one of the missing ninja had been highly respected jounin.

More importantly, they had all been the highest placed members still within Konoha's mainstream military structure. Two were members of AnBu, one was an intelligence officer working in Water Country and two more were genin instructors whose teams had either disappeared with their commander or returned incoherent, unable to recount any significant details even with the aid of a Yamanaka interrogator. The AnBu had taken over the investigations as an external security matter completely locking the KMP out of the equation.

The Hokage had vetoed their demand for a sharingan user to induce hypnotic memory recall on the advice of the victims' doctors. Recently, an agent had been snuck in regardless of the command. At the cost of a few catatonic genin there came the picture of a carefully planned ambush. Two ninja had worked to occupy the squad leader while their partners circled around and attacked from behind.

The eyes were extracted and body was destroyed on the site. The modus operandi was a mix of classical mist and sand tactics. The technique used to subdue the shinobi and damage the memories and psyche of the genin was an old Yamanaka curse technique, something that Uchiha Kagami, the Elder who had examined those memories recognized from the Second War before the practice was outlawed. The conclusion they came to was that Konoha was moving against the clan and it was explosive.

Mikoto was caught between her loyalty to her clan and to her village. Ultimately like any mother she sought to secure the safety of her children. What had been an exercise to protect Fukurou in place of her son Itachi, from the stresses of the clan's expectations turned into something more. As a jounin Mikoto had a passing familiarity with seals. As a contemporary of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato she understood just how much of a genius Fukurou must be to create a barrier that selectively sealed away knowledge of a specific fact from _anyone_ that had previously known about it.

That was the only explanation she could come up with for what the _Makoto_ seal that Fukurou had created was doing when it hid the existence of two whole fortresses from the world. Not even her mother, who had given birth to her at Fort Himei remembered where the place was. Even so, it was a desperate gamble and a test of Fukurou's trust when she made her request. Mikoto had turned in circles looking for a solution to her clan's problems on her own. Fukurou was her only hope to at least have a backup plan in case the worst happened. That meant dealing with his suspicions.

"Doesn't the village already have an evacuation plan for civilians?" Fukurou had asked her.

She knew that he wasn't a fool but had banked on his general disinterest in clan affairs to see her strange request through, "The evacuation plans don't include clan specific hideouts. I just need a way to make sure that our civilians can get to a safe place in the worst case scenario…"

"The worst case scenario?" Fukurou had an odd habit of squinting at people when he was thinking over their words, it was a tell that he only revealed around the people he trusted, "Mikoto-dono, I don't understand, what is the worst case scenario?"

"Fukurou, nothing is ever certain in the world of shinobi. Now that we have safe areas to put them, I just need a way to safely get non-combatant adults and children to the hideouts without them being intercepted." That was dangerously close to the truth, putting Fukurouto to use for the clan had been the purpose of getting Mikoto close to him but her own selfish desire to shield him in the way that she could not do for Itachi compelled her to remain vague.

Fukurou gave her a frighteningly penetrating look before relinquishing it with a sigh. Another sign of his trust in her was the way Mikoto could safely approach his home without being sent skinny-dipping or something. Sitting in his living room, watching him go through a drawer laden with unidentifiable knick-knacks, Mikoto worried that she was not worthy of his trust. Her obfuscation of Fukurou's role in supporting the clan's move to take control of the village may very well get him killed, either by the forces of the Hokage in a blanket response or by his fellow Uchiha should he prove resistant to the idea.

Getting Fukurou to follow along with the plan was Mikoto's job as had been informing her clansmen that he needed to be eliminated if it came to that. Mikoto needed to weigh the survival of her clan against the survival of Fukurou. She still didn't know what she would eventually decide when that moment came. Sending Fukurou on missions that put off that decision for a little longer was all she could think to do. Acquiescing to her request may have just bought him more time.

His solution to her request blew her out of the water. Mikoto stared at the object that he handed her after he explained what it did, "This is..."

* * *

There are no ranks within AnBu. Squads are chosen by the abilities needed for a successful mission. Professionalism begets the trust that in the field personality clashes have no say in the success or failure of the mission, not when it can result in the deaths of not only yourself and your teammates but damage to the village itself, perhaps risking a war even. Command revolved around experience and one's reputation within the secretive community.

At thirteen, with two full years of experience and more than twenty-three missions under his belt, none of them below A-rank, Owl was a veteran operator. He was known as a levelheaded commander, cautious and discreet but willing to take on even the riskiest mission without hesitation should the Hokage command it. Even Rooster had to give him credit for his prodigious mastery of genjutsu, changing targets to the newer Weasel as an outlet for her dislike of 'prodigies'. His mastery of ninjutsu and excellent stamina made him a formidable combatant that used wind, fire and lightning chakras. Fukurou's archery skills even led to the formation of an unofficial kyūjutsu group within the corps. They were mostly Hyūga using a combination of their telescopic vision and fly archery to make their kills

Thus it came to be that Fukurou was leading a team of shinobi through the forests of Konoha on a month long mission to infiltrate the Land of Rain and glean information on shinobi movements throughout the country. He wasn't too familiar with his teammates but that was hardly unusual. The woman anchoring the back of the formation was someone that he'd seen before. Scuttlebutt had it that she was a member of a secret group run separately from the rest of AnBu. If she was here then it meant that Shimura Danzo, the AnBu operations commander had a special interest in overseeing this mission.

As was his way, Fukurou had avoided trying to deliberately read his teammates. The emotional and mental training that AnBu received made getting away with a legilimency probe unnoticed, unlikely. As a result, he was caught completely by surprise when Boar pitched forward. He was signing to Monkey who caught him and Snake their medic, to check him out when a flicker of motion in his peripheral vision caused him to lash out defensively. Given the properties of the sharingan and Fukurou's seal training he had a split second to realize the trap he'd fallen into before the jutsu took hold.

"Success." Fū informed his teammates from Fukurou's body.

"As expected of your traps…" Torune replied before turning to Kana, the AnBu medic assigned to the mission. "Hurry up and sedate him!"

Fukurou's violently protesting mind returned to an unresponsive body.

In a Root facility, Shimura Danzo fought down a grimace at the twinges of pain coming from his newly implanted arm. He balanced the displeasure he felt at the incomplete weapon he had attached to himself with the knowledge that soon he would have an eye that surpassed even Shisui's. He watched the body strapped to the medical table, covered in immobilizing seals as it was prepared for surgery. Perhaps he would use the corpse as a bargaining chip to obtain the rest of the research data on the mokuton and sharingan adaptation measures from Orochimaru.

Shisui's eye had been an excellent backup plan if he couldn't obtain this one but seemed like he should have waited before implanting it. Fū had come through yet again. One of those eyes would instead be placed on his arm. Perhaps he would replace both of his natural eyes, though it would be a tough sell to others that he remained effective 'without' either of his eyes or the use of his right arm. The sharingan would make that a moot point probably, once he got full control of them.

He gazed into Fukurou's eyes with his own stolen Sharingan. His natural chestnut colored left eye was tightly shut. The seals forced Fukurou's eyes permanently active for the procedure, a measure to conserve as much of the original body's chakra as possible for the augmentations that would follow before they were implanted within Danzo. Danzo wasn't taking any chances. Kana had had her own vision sealed for this operation and she had been trained until she could perfectly carry out this surgery blind, literally.

Confirming the proper activation of Fukurou's eyes Danzo turned aside to go, "You may begin, extract both of his eyes then prepare his body for storage. If there is any sign of trouble you may kill him." He said.

The woman nodded and Danzo left the operating room. Kana had no feelings on the morality of what she was doing. Her orders were clear and her will... didn't matter. What she did was for the village. Danzo-sama had trained her too well for such inconsequential concerns to stay her hand. As soon as the iryōjutsu indicated that her chakra scalpel was in the proper place, she made the first cut.

* * *

**AN: Next, a hint the true darkness of the shinobi world is revealed. What measure did Fukurou come up with to save Uchiha Clan from peril? How did Mikoto recognize it? Will Fukurou lose his light? Beyond Voldemort's equal, beyond the Master of Death, an evolution of Uchiha Power never before seen. Wisdom, Power and Mercy what rages within his heart?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Murders, Shadow Plays and Daybreak**

* * *

The figure strode quickly down the silent halls until it stopped before a certain door. Shimura Danzo was sitting behind his desk when Kana came to see him. She had the faint scent of blood and antiseptic on her. Calmly she waited until the aged shinobi set down his papers and regarded her with a single chestnut eye, "What is it," He asked slowly, "Are you finished already?"

**Earlier:**

"_Hiraishin?" Mikoto wondered aloud. The seal looked different but its function seemed to be the same type of Jikūkan ninjutsu that Minato had used. Mikoto was so shocked that she just stood staring at the bracelet in her hand after having blurted out her amazed query._

"_Not exactly," Fukurou told her. The compressed seals spelt out kanji for Returning Home Gate, "This seal will work only once to transport anyone in direct contact with the object that it's inscribed on to a specific location upon activation. It will warp both space and time in order to get them there."_

_She looked it over, "How do you activate it?"_

"_Its peril sensitive and will only activate if the wearer is in mortal danger," He answered, "Or if I activate a master seal to call them to my location." Saying that Fukurou showed her a ring with an orange band on it, "I'm having a little difficulty getting the trigger to properly work for shinobi though. As ninja we are constantly in danger and put our lives at risk every time we go out into the field. That could easily trigger a false alarm. I've had to lower the sensitivity of the peril trigger on these so that they only respond to imminent death. I'm not sure how safe that is."_

_Mikoto couldn't even begin to understand how that worked and so focused on what she did know, "It still might be possible to give those to genin at least though," she said, "They don't often go on missions outside the village anymore, it shouldn't trigger prematurely." _

_Fukurou shrugged as he handed her the box of assorted jewelry and knick knacks, "It's up to you to get them to wear these. I'm still working on an alternative system for myself and any other higher ranking ninja that might be in trouble."_

_Mikoto quirked a brow at him in curiosity, "Oh, how will that work?" she asked._

_Her nephew smiled and showed her what looked like a beauty mark on the outer corner of each eye, "These are seals that form a barrier to protect my eyes in case they are in danger of being damaged while on a mission."_

An amber barrier of light covered Fukurou's eyes like a wraparound visor, blocking Kana's chakra scalpel. The medic-nin didn't hesitate and immediately moved to destroy Fukurou's brain.

_Fukurou showed her a seal on his chest, a circle bounded by a triangle and bisected by a vertical line, "This seal will register how long my body has been inactive, if the protections on my eyes activate when I've been immobile for longer than a minute then a similar Jikūkan Ninjutsu to the one on that bracelet will automatically trigger."_

Before the Root shinobi could kill her target, he vanished from the entirety of her senses and the room itself. The blue haze around her left hand peeled off a strip of metal from the table that cut her wrist…

In the Fort Himei hideout, Fukurou appeared in the center of a large seal array with a puff of smoke. The sleeping ninja cat that was supposed to guard the room was startled awake at the sound and light coming from the activated array. Over a period of months Fukurou had poured a large amount of yin-yang chakra into the storage seals inked on the floor. It had been intended to provide him with a large boost of regenerative chakra for use in healing any injuries that he might have. In this case the parameters Fukurou had set recognized the powerful dosage of muscle relaxants in his blood as a harmful and tried to burn them out by accelerating his metabolism.

This surge in power also had the effect of weakening the suppressing seals that limited Fukurou's movement. A trembling hand reached up to touch his face. His eyes stared at the ceiling above, their pupils shrunk to pin pricks. His heart racing, the stress of the situation he had found himself in was acerbated by feeling like a hairy gorilla was sitting on his chest. The remaining suppression seals were slowly failing but in the process the physical and mental exertion left Fukurou teetering on the brink of exhaustion. Unable to properly breathe, he blacked out for an unknown period of time.

* * *

Uchiha Fukurou was conceived when at the same moment, in another universe, Old Man Potter died. Harry had lived a long life even for a wizard. If he could have been told this he would have said that what truly mattered most was what he did with the time that he had, not how long. Widowed at eighty-four due medical complications that might have been easily treatable if only certain muggle advancements in diagnostic sciences had been known to wizard healers, Harry spent his twilight years in a joint research project with his friend and confidant Hermione Weasley.

Harry sought to advance the Wizarding world's understanding of magic and technology. Hermione sought the still elusive Unifying Equation confident that magic was the missing piece to the Theory of Everything. They may not have been completely successful, but some good was done. Harry became something of a Renaissance man and as a public figure, investor and inventor he created many laws, charities and inventions that would in time revolutionize his world. Hermione found that while magic was a missing piece of the puzzle it was not the only one.

Still, her failure was also a success in many ways. Progress can be made in a string of small advances as easily as quantum leaps. As a Muggle Studies Professor at Hogwarts she expanded her students' knowledge of the non-magical world beyond being able to badly fit in. Together by the year 2130 the two of them became known as the icons that had dragged the Wizarding world into the twenty-first century.

These were memories of Old Harry's that Fukurou cherished the most...

At an age when he should have been sitting on his porch with all the other old duffers watching the heliopaths float by, there came to be signs of darker times. Ever do the young and the foolish believe that change must come with the destruction of the Old Guard. Whereas Harry had sought to make his world better without any conflicts, others for less altruistic reasons sought to rule over their fellows by creating new ones. Greed, corruption and simple vices, conspired to see that the forces of a nascent Dark Lord grew in power unchecked once again.

Harry gave his warning and was ignored. He was called a has-been of times best forgotten. The minister had accused him of seeking some last claim to fame at the price of public order. Her wealthy campaign contributors were upstanding members of society, so what if they wanted to change a few laws? Still there were those who did listen; friends and allies cultivated over a lifetime from both sides of the divide, light and dark, lawmen and career criminals alike. An agent had given him warning of an attack on a low priority target and Harry maneuvered the situation to drive the perpetrators into the light before they were truly ready to bring chaos to his world. He subtly placed the Minister herself in the crosshairs of the assassin instead of some lowly clerk who had learned too much.

That attack had been all it took to set things in motion. Harry found himself being elected into interim office. His response to the Minister's assassination put an end to the threat of that Dark Lord and his followers. The reforms that Harry made in office all but assured that his successors were subject to a system of checks and balances that guarded against personal corruption. He left following generations a reasonably transparent and truly effective government. The medical and social changes he and Hermione had championed were also made into law. By all accounts he was the most celebrated Minister for Magic of the last century.

Twenty-eight year old Auror, Nymphie Lupin died before her time in the attack that killed the Minister. She guarded her charge with her life and died protecting her. Harry was left to console Nymphie's parents while her grandfather Teddy faded with the loss of his sole granddaughter. Harry was bitterly reminded of a piece of advice he'd once been given about great people that made equally great mistakes. He was an old man with all his friends dropping dead about him like flies. His only desire during those final years after retiring from office was to watch his great-grandchildren grow up as he quietly waited to die.

Having been born into a time of turmoil and orphaned by violence, he supposed it was karma that he would die in peace…

Only to be reborn into an era of conflict, orphaned by war and not even allowed to forget his sins. He was an old man at heart, his soul was _weary.._.

Humoring Mikoto was nothing to him in the midst of a state of depression carefully hidden by his Occlumency enforced apathy. After being forced into AnBu there were few things that could move Fukurou's heart. Exploring the limits of his new magic, letting Mikoto fret over him as though he were really a child and caring for his little cousins, those were the things that brought meaning to his life of death-dealing. At times he was almost tempted to end his existence just see if he could score a do-over in some _other_ less violent, 'Next Great Adventure'.

Lying on the floor, Fukurou slowly began to come to his senses, _"Breathe…breathe."_ He forced himself to calm down as his mind struggled to deal with what had happened. It seemed that there was no greater way to shock someone out of depression than to threaten to cut their eyes out if they didn't shape up. Fukurou gave a deep, shuddering breath as he remembered those terrifying minutes strapped to that surgical table. If Fukurou was to survive having the Commander of AnBu as an enemy he would need to prepare.

Danzo in seeking to avoid being controlled by Fukurou, also inadvertently gave the younger man a weapon that could be used against him. Matching his gaze with a stolen sharingan might have allowed him to fight off Fukurou's attempts at mind control but it also left the old shinobi vulnerable to him in other ways. Using a sharingan that was not naturally his own had opened up a back door in Danzo's mental defenses that allowed Fukurou free access to the man's thoughts and memories. Fukurou in an effort to learn why he was being held captive had delved deeply into the mind of the older shinobi.

It was at that point while Fukurou was shifting through the stolen memories that he happened across Danzo's plans for the Uchiha Clan.

_**Oh…**_

_**Hell…**_

_**No!**_

His struggles to rise to his feet alarmed the ninja cats and crows fretting over him. Still partially restrained by the broken seals, his muscles rebelled against moving. His legs buckled under him and Fukurou collapsed onto his back. His head cracked against the concrete floor. Swearing bitterly he lost consciousness.

* * *

The irony of the situation was not lost on him. Here he stood within the Uchiha district prepared to eliminate the clan with the knowledge and aid of Konoha. No, the irony of the situation was not lost on Uchiha Madara. The barriers went up, Zetsu spread the toxic pollen at his command and Madara went to work. They had no idea just how long he'd waited for this moment.

Those who wore the portkeys that Mikoto had handed out under the guise of a gift from their Clan Head, vanished an instant before the poisonous miasma Zetsu had spread could settle on them. These were the civilians of the clan and children too young for the academy, people for whom the potent chemicals contained in Zetsu's pollen would have proven fatal without the benefit of having a metabolism geared toward producing chakra to resist its effects. Those who were genin, slumped unconscious but still disappeared to the safety of a fidelus warded hideout before Madara's shadow even touched upon them.

Twenty-five individuals for various reasons didn't wear their accessory disguised portkeys. Some were mothers who took them off for household chores. Most of them died when the killing began. A few were whisked away to safety holding onto their children when their seals activated. Some were teens who after putting on the rings and bracelets and chains for the sake of appearances promptly chucked them in a drawer somewhere and forgot about them.

Some simply forgot to put them on and some genin were killed before their less sensitive seals could trigger. The civilians of the clan weren't informed of the more sensitive matters, like the rebellion or the fact that Uchiha were being murdered. Mikoto hadn't been allowed to give the real explanation for why they should wear the portkeys other than to play up the recent disappearances and say that it was for their safety.

Madara had no reason or time to account for the missing families. The eighty-two disorganized individuals that remained for him to find were mostly shinobi of the clan who fought when they realized what was happening. He killed plenty of fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts. He killed children, he killed adults. He killed those that raised arms against him and those that tried to run away.

He took the sharingan from those that had them and left the rest to rot. It was all so very amusing, the paranoia of both the Uchiha Clan and the village Elders. All it took was push here and a tug there, a murder to arouse suspicion and a rumor to confirm another. Having Itachi approach _him_ to take part in this little act of genocide was but the icing on the cake. Gaining the boy's willing, if not loyal, service was the cherry on top.

Fugaku struggled with his son as Mikoto positioned herself, her heart frozen in indecision she knew not whether she should subdue her murderous child or grab hold of her husband and vanish to safety. In the end the decision was taken from her. Itachi reversed the path of his ninjatō and stabbed at her. The tip of the blade caught on the ring that she'd been holding away from her body by a chain. The force of the thrust drove the weapon and the jutsu shiki into her side. As Mikoto fell to the ground her husband's anguished cry was the last thing that she heard from him, _"Sasuke! Don't come in here!"_

* * *

He was bathed in light, floating peacefully in an endless nothingness. It was quite relaxing. There was no pain, quite so he felt sated. It was like floating just below the surface of a pond in the middle of a forest clearing with the sunlight shining down on his closed eyes. His mind brushed against countless others each leaving a faint feathery touch like reeds brushing against him. It was marred by a single sensation that faintly niggled at him like a curious fish. It was the feeling that he didn't deserve any of this.

_No one judges you as harshly as you judge yourself, Harry. _

_Is that you Luna, my friend? Did you die as well?_

_That question has no meaning here… In this Pure World…Names are meaningless. Wars are meaningless. In this place there is no such thing as Enemy or Friend. Time is meaningless. Hate is meaningless._

_Love as well?_

_Hate and love are but two sides of the same coin. To accept one is to accept the possibility of the other. In this world lacking both enemies and friends hatred and love hold no meaning. Welcome to Nirvana Harry Potter._

_Who are you?_

_That question is meaningless… you already know who I am...Master._

Fukurou awoke with a name on his lips and a faint sensation of longing…

Nekomata sat watching him worriedly. "Oh, you're awake, eh?"

Fukurou sat up cautiously as the bakeneko watched. His head was pounding and his muscles were stiff from disuse. He flinched as a particularly painful throb interrupted his self assessment of his injuries.

"How long have I been out?" He muttered hoarsely.

Nekomata answered him in a softly rumbling purr, "You were unconscious for the three days it took for those restraints on your body to fade."

"Three days!" he cried, his heart sinking.

A gentle paw stopped him from rising, "Boya…" Nekomata started watching him sadly, "I got some bad news."

Looking upon Mikoto, seeing her weak and listless had been hard. He talked to her for the few minutes that she was conscious getting a some very important questions answered before the medic cat-nin ushered him out of the room. Seeing his aunts crying, clutching their children who were asking for their fathers and elder siblings was harder. The few corpses that had been recovered after activating the master seal to recall all the portkeys revealed bodies with their eyes removed, simply plucked out like ripe fruit from a tree.

Policing those bodies hadn't been the hardest thing that he'd done, it was informing the survivors of their loss. A great chorus of wails arose that night in Fort Himei the cries of grieving orphans and widows, of parents that would be burying their children, and children…their parents. By the end of it Fukurou was crying, tears of blood. His guilt over not being able to warn his family and over his disinterest in their affairs ate at him with every grim task that he undertook, burying bodies, comforting families, watching them suffer. It was just as Kurotengu and Nekomata predicted, his eyes had changed…

"_Itachi, what have you done?"_

Fukurou was not one to rush into things. Harry had learned that lesson long ago. _The price of wisdom is pain._ There would be hell to pay though, hell to pay…

Nekomata followed tentatively after him as he strode into another section of the fortress. A bloody finger and a burst of chakra opened up a section of the wall. The room beyond it resembled the meeting hall below Naka Shrine. On the floor Fukurou had drawn truly massive seal. The room was intended for holding large numbers of people, forty or fifty adults easily. The seals he had drawn stretched across the floor and were scrawled upon the walls and even the ceiling. In the center of the floor were inked the words _Yin_ and _Yang _within a large circle of seal script. On three of the walls were the kanji for _Fire_, _Wind_ and _Lightning._

"It's not complete, but it will have to do." Fukurou muttered. Nekomata watched worriedly as the wall closed up behind the young Uchiha. **"Fukurou… what do you intend to do?"** The boss cat asked him.

As the walls ground shut, Fukurou spared him one last glance, "Protect them."

The bakeneko dithered about for a moment before scoffing, **"Bah! Who cares what the brat does to himself?"** He then settled down on the floor to wait. _**"Brat!"**_

Fukurou's apathy had evaporated at the sight of his cousins' corpses. What took its place was not rage but a cold and ruthless calculation. It allowed him to hold himself in check from going after Danzo long enough for a semblance of rationality to take hold. He forced himself to think of what his surviving clansmen wanted and needed rather than what his rage wanted and needed for them. This was a lesson Old Harry had learned. _Justice without mercy is tyranny._

The seal in this room was a copy of one Old Harry had created with Hermione's aid in his later years. It was a system of offensive and defensive personal wards that used his blood and bones as an anchor in place of ward stones. It had grown more complex due to the inclusion of his elemental affinities into the design. He had hoped to first develop an affinity for all the elements before using this technique but that was likely to be years in the future if it was possible at all.

If he was to deal with Danzo, he needed to bring out his A-game. Wind, fire and lightning would have to do for now but Danzo's memories of the luminaries of the ninja world, gave him an idea as to how to use this technique to the best of his ability. Those same memories also told him exactly where to find the Root commander. Fukurou ran through some hand seals and released the seal on his chest. The black script expanded until it filled the circle in the floor. He used daubs of blood to link the two seals together with a key rune. The jagged lightning bolt shaped rune was called _Sowil__ō_, the triumph of light over darkness. As he carefully worked around the edge of the circle he chanted, _**"The Sun is the light of the world, I bow to the divine decree…the Sun is the light of the world, I bow to the divine decree…"**_

* * *

He felt more powerful than ever but always, Fukurou remembered Old Harry's third tenet. _Power is but an illusion_. His body still ached slightly from the seals that had sunk into his flesh and buried themselves within the marrow of his bones. His heart still ached for those lost children. His soul still ached from being denied final rest. He suppressed these feelings as he moved through the Root hideout using Danzo's own memories as a guide. No Root agent saw him as he passed through the secret ways that their paranoid boss had built within the already secret passages.

He found Shimura Danzo waited there as if he had been expecting him but Shisui's eye betrayed the truth to Fukurou. There was ambush set up at the old site that his kidnappers had taken him to in case he came back there. Danzo's surprise was genuine at the fact that Fukurou had somehow managed to not only find this base but pass through the numerous, obsessively secure layers of security just to reach this room. He knew the cold shiver of fear that Danzo felt at the realization that Shisui's eye was having absolutely… no…effect on him.

No words passed between them yet Fukurou still knew of Danzo's determination to fight and even die if that was what it took to end the perceived threat of the Uchiha Clan. He watched as the man moved to free himself of the bonds upon his right arm… Shisui's right arm!

The two shinobi that crept up from behind were intended to kill him or failing to do so delay Fukurou enough for Danzo to unseal his arm. He felt the Danzo's surprise as Fū and Torune instead of attacking, obediently knelt at his feet. He could see the wheels turning in his head as the man saw in it a confirmation of just how dangerous the Uchiha before him truly was. Of how right Danzo was to take him down before the massacre began. The Root commander twisted in place and unleashed a sickle of air from his mouth. The intention was to buy himself time to escape, signal for reinforcements with the chakra surge or gain some space to maneuver or any of a dozen or so things…

It was a futile gesture…

Danzo persistently kept Shisui's eye on him. He was right in thinking that the sharingan could stall any attempt to take control of his actions but it left his mind open in ways that should not have been possible for a shinobi with so much experience and years of sensitive information in his head. Fukurou knew every thought as it came. Danzo's stolen sharingan yielded the man's secrets almost as if Shisui was having his revenge from beyond the grave.

Fears were exposed, old nightmares and recent dreams. Memory after memory was offered, observed and cataloged within Fukurou's head. Danzo's hand pulled on the first pin of his arm bracer as the sickle of air raced toward his opponent. Fukurou knew exactly what Danzo intended to do if Fūton: Shinkūha succeeded. He now knew every technique in Danzo's arsenal. He knew exactly how much wind chakra had been placed within the technique and thus the exact amount of strength needed to neutralize it with little more than a scratch on the opposing walls to either side of them.

Wind enhanced kunai was countered with wind enhanced kunai as every action in those intense sixty seconds served as an object lesson of just why fighting a sharingan wielder one on one was suicide. The first bolt on the sealing bracer popped out the moment Fukurou finally took everything Danzo's mind had to offer. He knew the man down to his most secretive vices, every unspoken desire; every unutterable secret. Fukurou's hands clapped together and light flashed like a reversed mimicry of a lightning strike. Danzo's right arm, still bearing the seal bracer hit the ground first. Then what remained of his head from his upper jaw up to the crown of his skull landed with a fleshy thud.

Ashes sprinkled the ground around those two body parts. The only other signs that a struggle had occurred were a few thrown weapons, some scratches and an imprint on the far wall made there by a flash of light so intense that it burned the reverse shadows of Danzo's bones onto the cement behind him. A faint rush of displaced air signaled the arrival of Kana in the room. Her unsealed eyes looked upon her former target's own, then she knelt at his feet as well, "Fukurou-sama is everything alright?"

He nodded lightly, "Take me to the barracks, I wish to speak to the troops."

His voice was even, unconsciously modulated to match the tone of the man whose memories he had stolen in addition to his life. He picked up the head and arm before gesturing from Fū to the ashes fluttering down around them, "Clean that up."

The man nodded and went looking for a brush and dustpan, "Yes sir!"

He turned to Torune and Kana, "Lead the way."

* * *

"Where is he?" The Sandaime asked with a deceptively gentle tone, "I want Danzo here to explain himself!" There was no hiding how he felt when he said that. Six hours ago Uchiha Itachi had knelt before him in the basement of the Hokage Tower begging him to protect his brother from Danzo. In the wake of the boy's explanation of what had happened and his subsequent flight from justice Sarutobi had sent out squads of AnBu to cordon off the area and investigate the scene of what could only be called a massacre. He had gone there long enough to see the area for himself. He saw streets littered with bodies, walls covered in blood and found the comatose body of what was undoubtedly going to be one traumatized survivor should Sasuke awaken.

He found his advisors Koharu and Homura waiting for him in his office when he got back. The arrangement between himself and Danzo allowed the other independent action so as to provide the Hokage with plausible deniability. However the two people in his office were responsible for keeping tabs on his old friend so that things didn't go too far. They were there to provide oversight and inform him of when Danzo began to cross the line. It was so he could govern without worrying about whether or not he could trust the Anbu Operations Commander. So that things could run smoothly, so that they didn't step on each other's toes or inadvertently mess up a black operation.

They had known about the Uchiha situation, they had known he wasn't finished trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution, they had known that he wasn't going to approve _anywhere near_ as drastic an action as what Danzo had pulled just yet. Knowing all of this; and about Shimura Danzo's planned act of genocide, they still hadn't breathed a _frigging word_ of what was going down until after the fact. He was pissed at them. He was pissed at Danzo. He was… _"Where the hell was Danzo?"_

"C-calm down Sarutobi," Koharu said to him as he simmered. He cast at her a scathing glance that made the woman step back with her hands raised in a warding gesture.

"Eliminating the civilians and children wasn't in any of the scenarios presented to us or we would have said something," Homura added, "You had agents in your forces that were reporting back the Uchiha, the situation had already gone far past the point of negotiating."

"That was for me to decide!" Hiruzen snarled, "The Uchiha were a founding clan of this village, any such decision on their fate was not your place to decide!"

"But what was there to be done!" Koraru asked him, "Even if there was reason for you to do so, a preemptive action would have had dire consequences for the stability of the village. The clans would look to the Uchiha as a sign of things to come and lose confidence in you, Sarutobi! Even if it were not the case, the other villages would see this as an opening to begin making overtures to any survivors just as _we_ are doing in the Mist."

"Either way this was something that only Danzo could do." Homura said as he turned to the figure that had entered the room.

"Danzo!" Sarutobi barked.

"Is dead…" Fukurou coldly replied.

The two elders stared at Fukurou as though a cobra had slipped into their midst. To the uninformed it might have seemed amusing to see three adults look so wary at the appearance of an unarmed thirteen year old. Well, two of the adults were staring at Fukurou, clad as he was in a midnight blue keikogi top and pants with a Root short jacket thrown over his shoulders. The Sandaime was staring at what he held in his right hand.

Regardless of the way things had stood between the two, Sarutobi had known Danzo for close to seventy years. Having the man's charred head tossed onto the floor of his office was a powerful statement. Homura expressed the reaction that the Sandaime worked to consciously suppress, "Danzo! You! Why are you here! Are you aiming for the life of those involved?" The man hissed at him, falling into a fighting crouch.

Koharu did the same behind Homura and she began to weave hand seals under the cover of her fellow Elder, "Sarutobi!" She hissed at the shocked Hokage trying to jolt him into action. She also wondered where the AnBu guarding the tower had gone off to and if Fukurou had killed them. This was a ninja in of the same caliber as Itachi. The fact that he managed to kill an Elder within the confines of the village and walk around unopposed confirmed it.

"I am after no such thing," Fukurou calmly replied, "I merely wish to see to the safety and well being of the surviving members of my clan and to put an end to further aggression toward the Uchiha by agents of Konoha."

For his part Sarutobi hadn't really fallen into a daze though the sight of Danzo's head did affect him. What had shocked him was the thing held in Fukurou's other hand. It was a grotesque pasty white arm covered with ten sharingan laden eyes in both the fore and upper arm. At the shoulder was the silhouette of a face he knew as well as his own.

"What the hell?" The Sandaime breathed in horror.

Koharu and Homura gasped as well when Fukurou held up the arm. Some of the eyes rolled around in their sockets blankly looking at the room.

"Sandaime Hokage-sama, for the past few years Konoha Elder Shimura Danzo has been abusing his position of authority within AnBu and as commander of the secret division Root in order to carry out several criminal acts, including but not limited to the unsanctioned murder of his fellow shinobi and several acts treason." Fukurou stated as the older shinobi focused upon the face of the Shodaime growing out of the mutated arm. "This is the reason why your efforts to establish a peaceful accord with my family has been fruitless. Danzo has been murdering my kinsmen in order to harvest their eyes while you talked to them of peace."

"T-this is…" Koharu stuttered, what that face meant was too horrible for her to utter aloud.

"Forbidden research that Orochimaru had been conducting at the time that he was conveniently discovered by you and forced to flee the village in disgrace, Sarutobi-sama." Fukurou then added, "Discovered via information provided by Shimura Danzo when Orochimaru began to become a liability."

Fukurou didn't mention Uchiha Madara or Akatsuki to the Sandaime, he didn't want to muddy the waters with claims that he couldn't prove. His only hope of a future for his clan within Konoha was to convince this one man to let them live. He was not above using his sharingan to influence the Hokage's decisions but Danzo had mentioned that ability to Homura and Koharu who were watching him like hawks. He kept his eyes their natural green and instead spoke to the Sandaime with the knowledge of one who had known him his entire life.

"I was the last of the ninja slated to be executed and have their eyes recovered. I managed to escape from the northern Root base near the border three days ago only to learn from my summons of the destruction of much of my clan," He chuckled mirthlessly "In truth, if Danzo hadn't kidnapped me, I'd probably have had to deal with my own clansmen trying to kill me. I have had little interest in the affairs and goals of my clan. Were it not for my kidnapping I would have been ignorant of this little coup just like the rest of the survivors."

"So you say…" Homura commented.

Fukurou ignored him, the man was not important.

"Uchiha Mikoto-dono is the sole reason that any of our clan survived, it was she who first notified you of the trouble brewing, Hokage-sama. I have studied under her since my first chunin exam, and have been working with her on ways to protect our family." He now appealed to the part of the Hokage Danzo had thought a weakness, his compassion, "The Uchiha Clan has always wanted one thing above all others, and that is something that every clan that joined this village has sought. We are a family, we wish to proudly watch our children grow up, to live without fear of war or persecution, to protect our family and our friends. Elder Danzo threatened our family and the unjust suspicion and subtle discrimination has hurt our pride. "

His green eyes met Sarutobi's earnestly, "I have taken command of Root, Danzo is dead, Uchiha Mikoto wishes for nothing more than for her family to be safe. If you let my people live I will see to it that the truth of what happened here today will die with me."

The power of that promise reverberated within the office as the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon.

* * *

**AN: As expected responses to the previous chapter ranged from an emotive, 'this sucks, _You_ suck!' To reasoned suggestions recommended improvements. On the matter of how Fukurou was captured and the fight with Danzo in this chapter I took a stance on high level fights that goes like this. Danzo has been studying Fukurou for close to two years and he knows how best to take down an Uchiha. You don't get into a straight up throwdown with one, that's suicide. You distract them, while someone sneaks around and attacks where they can't see you. **

**In this instance the ANBU team with Fukurou and Fū's collapse were the distraction from looking at the cursed puppet too closely. I assume that the instinct in that situation would have been to lash out and jump away. In that situation lashing out triggered the trap. Fukurou might have been able to fight off a normal possession but for the purposes of the story the sealing jutsu was a little harder to avoid since it was Fukurou himself who completed it by attacking. They sedated his body before returning his mind to it, all in all a very neat capture.**

**The fight between Fukurou and Danzo is a look at a typical high level fight between shinobi. Think of Orochimaru versus Itachi (both times) in the manga and Naruto versus Pain. A fight will end quickly if one side knows a weakness or a way to counter the other. Otherwise things are drawn out and shit gets destroyed. For Danzo, Fukurou was looking over his shoulder at his cards had taken out his two trumps Fū and Torune ahead of time and placed him at a disadvantageous position, one on one against a sharingan weilder. He'd have been lucky to escape.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Desperate Housewives, Work at Home and Abroad**

* * *

_Sasuke glared at him; Tsuruko's daughter, little Chiasa, smiled innocently. The three pregnant woman sitting on the couch behind the boy and his second cousin looked amused. One of them was Mikoto. A seventeen year old Fukurou sighed but answered their questions in the order they were asked._

_"No," He said, "You don't have to call me daddy if you don't want to..."_

_'Please don't...'_

_To Sasuke all he could say was, "I'm sure they taught this at the academy but if you want I can have Nekobaa explain the birds and the bees to you if you like?"_

_"Stay away from my mother!" He yelled._

_"Kid, that's so totally **not** the problem..."_

* * *

**Konoha**

Contrary to the belief of the medic-nins treating him, Uchiha Sasuke would have made a full recovery even without Fukurou's aid. In the early light of day, the news of what had happened in the Uchiha District was only just beginning to spread among the higher level shinobi from the doctors that had received the bodies and the KMP forces that mustered along with the AnBu. The medics had retreated quickly from Fukurou's presence in spite of him having no authority to banish them from Sasuke's hospital room. Their honest relief at seeing another survivor was balanced against the dark aura that Fukurou seemed to be emanating at the sight of Sasuke's condition.

The only other person remaining in the room was the AnBu hidden in the ceiling behind a cloaking genjutsu that was useless against the Uchiha Jounin. Fukurou spared him a glance then left him there. Fukurou's control technique and Shisui's looked the same on the surface but in practice they were quite different. Fukurou's was a hammer blow that crushed his opponent's sense of self and quashed the ability to resist his commands.

It was dependent of a subject's strength of will relative to Fukurou's desire to dominate that will. The effect not only varied in strength from person to person, it was also temporary. If not reapplied within a few days it could be overcome by someone with a strong enough will. Another drawback was that applying the technique multiple times to a person over a period of time damaged the victim's psyche. Fukurou learned this at the cost of a wild owl and while not an issue in battle when used for quick distractions, it was only a stopgap measure when used against Danzo's drones like the one on the ceiling.

Shisui's technique, which Fukurou had long ago faced before reading and defeating Danzo's inept copy, was closer in nature to Fukurou's Legilimency. It was a technique that worked by having a user sympathize with his victim's mind until their thoughts and memories could be freely substituted for ones of the user's creation. It required subtlety and an understanding of human psyche to pull off. By the time he had entered the Hokage's office that morning he had been mentally fatigued from the effort of using the technique on all the Root shinobi recalled to the home base in anticipation of things going south with the purge of the Uchiha.

The ninja above taken care of for the moment, Fukurou focused upon the child in the bed before him. A gentle had lifted Sasuke's head and brushed aside limp, sweaty hair. Prying one eye open, he gazed into the blankly staring orb. The tomoe of his right, active sharingan swam inward to merge with the darkness of his pupil before his mangekyō sharingan spread out in a swirl to occupy his iris. The technique he used did not have a name it was simply an extension of his natural legilimens ability.

"Time to _**wake up**_ Sasuke…" He said softly.

At first nothing changed. Then Fukurou's right eye returned to normal and as he let go, the boy's eyelids fluttered gently. There were dark circles around his eyes and his face was pale. Sasuke groggily stirred awake. Fukurou had teased him conscious a few hours earlier than he would have awoken on his own. It was a few hours less of nightmares but as the boy's eyes focused on his own with relief and hope, Fukurou feared that reality would be far harsher.

The Fort Himei location was fraught with nervous tension. The initial confusion and dismay gave way to grief and a rage that was as yet undirected. None who lived knew exactly what had happened just that there had been an attack and that half of their family was missing, presumed dead. The sixty-five survivors were mostly civilians with a score or so of them shinobi, mostly genin with a few chunin and jounin on maternity leave.

Given the situation most groups would have descended into anarchy given their loss. Someone might have left the relative safety of the fort or given away their location in some other way. In this case Fukurou's brief talk with a few of the jounin kunoichi and a briefing from the ninja cats and crows on the purpose of the fort was enough to temporarily establish some semblance of order.

Thus, when Fukurou side-a-long apparated in to the home seal with a traumatized Sasuke in tow, he was greeted with the normal ninja cat guards bolstered by two genin under the imperious command of one of his less obviously pregnant cousins. The boy made a beeline for Mikoto who was now in stable condition after a blood replenishing pill and some surgery to repair damage to the wall of her stomach. Leaving Sasuke to his own devices Fukurou found himself pulled into council with what were now the Elders of his clan and leading jounin. A collection of worried men and women in their Thirties and Forties along with a collection of kunoichi in varying stages of pregnancy watched him anxiously with fatigued but hard edged eyes.

Later the ten of them sat together in the room assigned to Mikoto. An exhausted Sasuke had been sedated and taken away to the next room. Fukurou intended to return him to his mother's side after the meeting. Mikoto wouldn't meet his eyes from where she lay across from him in her futon. The others were too dazed or absorbed in their thoughts to notice her odd behavior.

One of the jounin mothers, Tsuruko sat propped up upon a pile of pillows. Her sister, Moriko, a genin a three years younger than Fukurou tended to her.

"My husband is dead," She said matter-of-factly, "My father, my mother and half of our clan is dead. In the dark of night, someone walked into our village and killed them all. Is that what you're saying?" She asked him quietly.

"Itachi also killed Shisui," Fukurou told them, "He has the mangekyō he _used_ it on Sasuke."

"Mangekyō?" Moriko questioned.

"An advanced form of the sharingan," Tsuruko told her sister and the others that seemed puzzled, "Gained from murdering friends." She finished with disgust.

"Itachi did this?" Uchiha Sho, a shopkeeper, exclaimed disbelievingly, "Sasuke's brother, Itachi? That's…"

"Monstrous," Whispered one of Fukurou's cousins.

"Impossible!" Corrected the waspish looking woman beside Sho, "Even with the Mangekyō, Itachi still had to face more than forty jounin and at least fifteen or so Uchiha chunin, not counting retirees! There's no way he could have taken them all! At the least there should have been an alarm! Where was the village police when this was happening? Or the AnBu? Or all our other so-called prodigies?" She turned to Fukurou, "Where the hell were you?"

"Shut up." Tsuruko cut across the woman's tirade coldly, the thinly veiled violence in her tone caused the older woman to fall silent in an instant. "Let him answer," She turned her dark eyes upon him and silently bade him to speak…_or else_…

"Don't fight," Mikoto said to them tiredly, "Fukurou-kun was away on a mission before this began. The only reason any of us are alive is because of all the hard work he's put in to refurbishing our safe houses and creating those emergency summoning tags that I gave out."

There was a short round of murmurs and the waspish woman apologized. Another man spoke up, Uchiha Takayuki was a war veteran and a double amputee, "Well that explains how we got here but it doesn't tell us how this happened. I'm grateful Fukurou-san, but Akemi has a point. Itachi couldn't have killed all of those people without someone noticing. You were in the village, did the Hokage have an explanation?"

Fukurou answered them carefully, "I had the chance to look over the preliminary AnBu report on the incident and get a look around the district before they finished moving… the bodies," The AnBu report came from Danzo's men reporting back from observing the attack . "From trace evidence, blood splatter, the positioning of bodies, the victim's wounds and tracks; I deduce that many of the victims were lying prone on the floor when they were killed. Few put up much of a fight. The rate at which the blood dried, taking into account atmospheric humidity; onset of rigor mortis, dispersal pattern of the corpses; indicates that they were all killed within a short time of each other." He spoke in a clinical tone.

His tone of voice might have thrown off his non-sharingan bearing relatives but those that had spent time with the KMP recognized what Fukurou was doing and Takayuki, a detective for the KMP followed along. Using mnemonic triggers Fukurou recalled all that his sharingan had observed and was parsing the data for relevant information. "There was more than one attacker, less than five, at least three definitively. Suspect one in one hundred and sixty-seven centimeters in height, weighing sixty-seven kilos and killed with a ninjatō, likely Itachi. Suspect two is one hundred and seventy-eight centimeters tall and weighs seventy kilograms, unidentified. Suspect three stands at one hundred and seventy-seven centimeters high and weighs about seventy-five kilograms."

"Itachi and two others," This was the obvious conclusion that they came to from the information given. But why wasn't an alarm raised? Some wondered, inevitably the question was asked, "Could this have been a sanctioned action by Konoha?"

"Unlikely," Fukurou answered, "The political ramifications of such an act would be enormous," He said, "Also, from the statement Sasuke gave, Itachi implied that one of the attackers might be a sharingan user"

The others straightened in their chairs at that, as terrible and senseless as it was to be betrayed by one of their own, the knowledge that Itachi might not have been working alone but had help from another Uchiha was galling.

"Something like this could only weaken the village in the long run militarily," Takayuki slowly stated. "And the other clans wouldn't stand by while one of their own was killed off. It would mean a rebellion."

"All of the ninja killed had their sharingan removed if they possessed one." Fukurou told them then he folded his arms, "A more likely scenario is that Itachi led a small squad into the village and the Uchiha district, a barrier specialist and a poison user would explain why no one heard what was happening and how come our clansmen didn't put up a greater fight."

He wasn't completely lying through his teeth. Danzo had at least provided the barrier squad though his memories held nothing on a poison user being assigned to aid Itachi in the killings. It was a little jarring to see adults hanging on the words of a thirteen year old, shinobi or not but they were. One by one they nodded at his reasoning. They speculated on whether the fact that the eyes were taken meant that Kumo had been behind the attack. And they wondered who the mysterious Uchiha Itachi had spoken of was. Eventually the subject of the conversation turned to more pertinent issues.

The conversation carried on, "What do we do now?" fretted another of Fukurou's cousins.

"Return home of course!" The man sitting across the room from her answered.

Grim silence descended on them at the thought of returning to the scene of the massacre.

"We'll stay here for now," Mikoto told them, "This fort is fully stocked for at least the next month. The Hokage can't fault us if we don't feel safe in the village."

"Then what?" The waspish woman asked her.

"Then we build a new home in the village and have Fukurou-kun put up some extra protections." She answered, smiling wanly at the boy sitting at the foot of the bed. "Our clan has been grievously by one of our own with the aid of accomplices unknown. Not since the Shinobi World Wars have our numbers been so sharply decreased. I was born in this place, during an era of conflict. If we are to survive we must pull together," Mikoto gasped slightly in pain, garnering worried looks but she kept on speaking, "W-we must work together, for our children, for the future, we can't let I-Itachi take that away from us! I won't let him!"

Immediately after the group left the room Mikoto looked at the air above Fukurou's head, "So you have it too…"

The thirteen year old ninja sitting in the chair at the foot of her bed vanished like a hazy mist banished at dawn. Behind the chair there stood another Fukurou, this one wielding a pair of mangekyō sharingan. "I could have questioned you," He said, "If I had known…"

"I would have been forced to kill you," Mikoto answered him with dismay, "Don't blame yourself."

"I can't help it…" He replied.

She looked into his eyes without fear. Mangekyō was something spoken of with revulsion… and longing. "Those eyes will lose their light," She said, unconsciously parroting words heard whispered long ago. It was not a warning, merely a statement of the price he would have to pay.

"I know," Fukurou replied, his sharingan returning to their normal configuration. He'd have to have another look at the tablet under the Naka shrine when he got the chance. There had always been the feeling that there was something more, even before he'd viewed Itachi's hint to Sasuke while healing the boy.

He'd noticed that his mangekyō drained enormous amounts of Yin and Yang chakra even when in passive operation. He had more than enough Yin chakra but the draw on his Yang chakra was the same as for the Yin only his body held a smaller reserve. The discrepancy would probably damage his vision if he pushed it, draining more physical energy than he could spare from his eyes. He resisted the urge to touch the seal on his chest. He'd just stop using his advanced sharingan until he found a way around that limitation.

Mikoto bowed to him heedless of the pain in her side, biting her lower lip so hard she drew blood, "Forgive me!"

He told her, "I've stopped them from questioning the timing of your giving out the emergency summoning tags. Itachi was determined that the Uchiha name not suffer, so long as we hold the truth to ourselves the clan will be safe."

Fukurou said nothing for a moment, then he turned to go, "Take care of Sasuke and watch over our clan as its leader Mikoto," He said opening the door, "I will protect it for you… leave Itachi to me…"

As he shut the door and went to bring her other son to her, Mikoto's head remained bowed as she cried silently, _"Forgive me!"_

* * *

Their Clan moved back into the village two months later. The cabin and work sheds that Fukurou had used were torn down and became the center of a large compound that extended from the Kokoro Forest into the adjacent residential area. It was much smaller than the previous Uchiha District but still larger than the Hyūga compound though only housing fifteen families. The ninja cats had helped in its construction and it was paid for by selling and leasing several homes and business spaces within what was becoming the village's western residential district.

People were at first put off by moving into the home of a family that had been murdered, but space within a walled village was at such a premium that there were still plenty of offers anyway. It helped to offset the large drop in income due to losing so many active high-level ninja. Half of the surviving the families were headed by shop owners and businesspeople like Akemi so a sentō was opened up at the northern end of the compound and a number of restaurants and grocery stores that catered to the influx of tenants in the formerly Uchiha only district started making the clan very rich under Mikoto's leadership.

She never let her clansmen wallow in pity and given her duties, becoming the manager of the sentō allowed her to lead by example. It also helped business since the young men flocked to the place in droves to see her. It drove Sasuke wild given the intense mother-complex he developed in the wake of his family's tragedy. Tsuruku and Moriko managed a Kunoichi only dorm, other retired ninja clansmen opened mahjong and go-parlors, in a very strange way the Uchiha's wish to become a respected part of the village became real.

Mikoto, with Fukurou always somewhere in the background, joined the village council as a representative of the Uchiha Clan. It helped that the Hokage had always suspected that she was the one to first come forward to highlight the straining relationship between her clan and the village. It wasn't so much that she was trusted as that Sarutobi believed that an open dialogue was more likely to happen with her than another ill-fated secret rebellion. The way that her clan was peacefully becoming engaged with his village's economy also lent credence to Fukurou's claim of keeping the Uchiha from seeking revenge.

Koharu and Homura, the Sandaime's advisors didn't quite see things that way, at all. At first they had thought to outmaneuver Fukurou, by proving the old adage of 'experience over youth' but things hadn't gone the way they planned. Over the years, the two had planted a number of double agents within Danzo's organization in an effort to keep track of his actions. It didn't let them know the things that he held close to his chest, but in the wake of Fukurou's proclaimed takeover, the older shinobi had thought it possible to usurp control of Root from him.

At the time that Fukurou had made his proclamation, he had actually controlled sixty percent of all Root agents regardless of their actual affiliation. In the three days that it took for Koharu to arrange a meeting with their mole, not only did Fukurou control the entirety of the organization down to the trainees. He had by then used Shisui's adapted techniques on more than half of them including all of the double agents.

As far as they knew Fukurou had always been a constant fixture in life at Root. In some memories, he simply placed himself at Danzo's side during a briefing, or replaced the man completely. In some he was a comrade that had saved their lives, helped them through training, earned their respect or stood by during the most trying times of Root. Danzo's memories allowed him to remain consistent, the compartmentalized nature of the organization meant that for most there was little need to go into deeper detail than a face seen during a briefing or passed down a hallway on the way to a mission.

He knew that he'd scared the crap out of the two advisors by having their informants gaslight them by claiming that Fukurou had always been in line for command of Root. It was an easy trick to pull off especially with Danzo's memories. He had access to all of Danzo's personal pass codes and with them, the man's most restricted files, sealed official documentation clarifying the chain of command in the event of his death or capture and the means to create perfectly indistinguishable forgeries.

With taking control of Root away from Fukurou impossible without starting a war by sending assassins after his head, the elders fell on the old standby of limiting Fukurou's political influence and access to the Hokage. The former was nearly impossible with Danzo's records of who was accepting bribes from whom and whose mother's grandfather was an immigrant from Iwa. The Hokage wouldn't stand for it either when they tried isolating Mikoto or indirectly hindering an Uchiha Business. The political and economic goodwill of the Uchiha was simply too great.

On keeping him away from the Hokage, Fukurou generally kept a low profile unless he had a report to give on some important event or follow up on a request that was made of him by the Hokage. In those occasions the best that they could do was fill the room with hidden AnBu and guard over the Hokage themselves. Attempts to cut him out of the picture by acting as middlemen were stymied by a simple fact. The intelligence that Fukurou's agents gathered was more effective in some areas than even Jiraiya's network.

Aside from setting up a more complicated intent based ward over his clan's new home. Fukurou had been busy having the one hundred or so Root trainees that Danzo kept off of the books, travel about Fire Country and beyond planting hermetically sealed metal spikes. Each spike served two purposes. They bore a simpler set of seals than the ones his family had used to get to the safe houses. The compressed seals on these formed the Kanji for _Gate_ and _Detection_.

When the system was completed, Fukurou would be able to not only send portkey seal bearing agents and equipment instantly to within fifty meters of any Gate, but the detection seals was starting to form a gigantic Marauder's Map of the Elemental countries. There were still large holes in the detection grid, and countries Ike Ame were completely dark. Still, Fukurou had created a massive real-time detection grid that passively tracked ninja by the use of chakra. Should an agent could identify a particular signature while in the field or retrieve a sample of either their blood or chakra then names could be put to faces.

Already both the jinchūriki of Kumo and certain convicts and fugitives were having their chakra's actively logged. Using a seal set on the roof of a Root agent's throat and inner ear a form real time long distance of communication was set up using adapted Protean Charms by tying the vibrations they made to a crude speaker and microphone. With the ability to shuffle assets around on the field and stay in contact with teams in real time Fukurou was slowly changing Root from a fringe outfit of disposable fanatics, into what Danzo could have only hoped to make them. The people the Hokage turned to when his _AnBu_ couldn't hack it.

In the shadows of Konoha's upper echelons the name Uchiha Fukurou was slowly gaining notoriety. The new commander of AnBu, Nara Shikaku found having two separate special operations commands to be beyond troublesome but there was nothing he could do about it. Fukurou ran Root with an iron fist and the organization was not only successful but also served as a safe area to stash the surviving Uchiha genin from bloodline hunters. For so long as they stayed out of the way and continued to provide superior intel, he lived with the situation as best he could, which was very well considering it was less paperwork for him to do.

* * *

**Forests of Eastern Fire Country**

A youth strolled down a forested path one fine summer day. The rays of light fought their way through the canopy falling in narrow golden, slanted pillars down to the forest floor below. Sounds of nature around echoed around him filling the air. He slowly, tipped his hat as birds sang their mating call. A silvery flash of light preceded his beheading.

A masked man wielding a katana, appeared at the forested scene. The beheaded 'youth' collapsed to the ground a soft and woody thump. Behind the swordsman, the young traveler landed nearly silently amid fallen leaves.

Even so, man heard the shifting rasp of the dead leaves and moved. He spun on his heel, settled his feet and slashed once. The traveler dodged. The masked man twirled his katana in a single flowing movement backed by deceptively powerful force. Up and across the blade swept. The youth dipped under the attack with seconds to spare and with a sandaled foot, attacked the swordsman's legs.

The masked man stepped back and swept his sword down. The young man he was fighting retracted his leg rather than lose it. The youth spun to his feet and dodged to one side so quickly that the tip of his opponent's katana stabbed a blurry afterimage. The two stepped apart for a moment and circled each other. The walking stick in the boy's hand proved to be a shikomizue as the blade left its sheath with a softly menacing hiss. The two lunged at each other, the shikomizue sparking as the two blades brushed each other on their way seeking a temporary home in soft flesh.

The two broke apart. The youth stumbled and fell to his knees with a large gaping wound in his side. The masked man leaned against a tree. The youth fell face first to the ground. A few strands of dark hair could be seen at the edges of his takuhatsugasa. The swordsman slid down the tree before stopping, hanging there with his knees slightly bent. An arrowhead protruded from the other side of the tree, it disappeared with a light puff of smoke freeing the dead man to fall the rest of the way. The fallen youth dissolved into loose earth.

Later, the young man walked down another forest path. The air was faintly misty and the sunlight not as clear as it had been in the morning. Suddenly the boy paused midway through a stand of dead trees. In a single moment, he drew a shikomizue and sent a crescent blade of wind cutting through the five rotted tree's to his left. Two of those trees erupted in a shower of blood. A claw tipped hand exploded from one of the trees to the boy's right.

Cloth rent as an outer robe was sacrificed in order to escape. A large masked man, twice as tall as the youth, with long gangly arms stepped forth. The youth's hidden eyes narrowed as he took in this person's unusual proportions. The legs and arms were too big but not in a way that signaled some form of gigantism or a naturally developed skeletal structure. As his attacker swung and clawed at him with vicious intent he realized how it happened.

The bones in the man's arms and legs had been systematically broken and tensioned in his youth in order to lengthen them. It must have been an excruciating procedure, lasting years with the threat of a fatal infection looming large. Another hollow tree shattered under the force of a metal encased fist. The youth chucked the lightning encased shikomizue through the space between radius and ulna in both of the man's arms, briefly paralyzing them.

He rushed in, low to the ground after avoiding a stab kick that would have cave in his chest. A sweep from a kunai hamstrung the offending leg. A stab to the groin ensured lethality. Slitting the man's carotid merely quickened his end and released a spray of blood into the air. Suddenly he stumbled.

There was a great whooping laugh like a monkey and a large hairy man with wild hair and a broad chest landed on the boy's back on all fours. The youth's hat flew off as he was crushed into the earth, wavy black hair splayed about in a mess. A stone club crashed down on his skull as again and again the man hammered the boy's head into the earth as if it were a nail. The hairy man grinned as the ruined head mixed with the soil, becoming a thick muddy red paste.

"Ha-ha! Take that!" He laughed.

Then he twisted to one side, leaping away, the hairy man left behind an arm and a leg lopped off by wind enhanced shuriken.

"H-how?" He gasped, balancing shakily on one leg. On the ground lay the dead body of his long armed comrade, his head was crushed.

Fukurou stood in the trees hatless, a thick sleeve served to filter out any stray poison from the mist below. "The conditions aren't right for a mist, it was too suspicious…" He told the man, "Also, I could feel your bloodlust."

"Guaaaaugh!" The man vomited a billowing cloud of poison before rushing off into the forest. He leaked a trail of blood as he hopped from tree to tree on one leg.

He made it as far as a small clearing before a trio of wind enhanced arrows took him in the throat. But as Fukurou made to check the body he was forced to dodge a couple of thrown weapons as seven masked Prajñā Group ninja attacked from all sides. He skillfully evaded more thrown weapons and sword thrusts. In the middle of the fight, the assassins started to pull back and he realized why when he was backlit by the orange glow of fire.

A torrent of burning napalm flowed over him, or rather it flowed over the arrow riddled body that he replaced himself with. A lightning enhanced arrow impaled and electrocuted the large bellied shinobi that had tried to immolate him. The man screamed in pain before exploding with a massive '_whump_' and a shockwave that knocked everyone off of their feet.

The Prajñā were closer to the blast, one had run off, two were dead and four remained to fight. They were unsteady on their feet but met their end as proud ninja. Fukurou used shunshin to appear in their midst and hacked them apart with a wind enhanced ninjatō. He looked over their bodies, then out into the darkness of the deep forest. True ninja indeed, should that last man get away it would be the Prajñā Group's victory in the long term.

Part of Fukurou's new job as Commander of Root involved cleaning up Danzo's messes. The Land of Wood had been destroyed by war and subsumed by Fire Country sometime during the First Shinobi World War. The Prajñā Group was an organization of dedicated nationalists that had headed an underground movement to train an army with the singular goal of regaining their independence from Hi no Kuni. They had caused a crisis after crisis during the successive shinobi wars by providing Fire Country's enemies with scouts and guides that were as talented as the best Konoha ninja in forest warfare.

In the end the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai was founded and under the dual leadership of Danzo and the Sandaime the major strongholds of the Prajñā Group were wiped out by AnBu. The Hokage was content to leave the matter there with the group in military defeat but Danzo had gone a step further. He had decided to secretly eliminate any pro-nationalist faction within the former Land of Wood that held ties to the Prajñā Group.

It was a massacre that was several times larger than the one Danzo had planned for the Uchiha. While he had succeeded in eliminating the last of the original members of the Prajñā Group, the ill will fostered by the killings led to the situation that Fukurou found himself in now. The purge it seemed hadn't been as effective as Danzo believed.

Danzo may have been thinking he was destroying a threat for good by taking a scorched earth policy but Fukurou could already guess what happened. Even those who were not sympathetic to the cause might give shelter to a fellow countryman. The Prajñā Group wasn't so much a clan as it was a movement. It was a system of beliefs and by its very nature could not be killed unless it is forgotten.

Lines of heredity were useful for breeding stronger, more able ninja but adoption could serve just as well if what you were passing on was a system of beliefs. A seed of hatred planted by Danzo long ago had blossomed into a modern threat. Intel indicated that Kumo was providing supplies and training to the group. Given the cold war between the two villages that waxed and waned, and the history of the Prajñā Group, it meant nothing good for Konoha.

As a result Fukurou was standing before a hut that was filled with orphaned children, some of them were children orphaned by the Prajñā Group itself. Lacking familial connection to anyone save themselves, these children served as the perfect pawns. This was where Danzo got his ideas for indoctrinating agents. The oldest of the children was a four year old whose arms were broken and braced in preparation for the lengthening process.

He had a choice to make, kill them and end the threat of the Prajñā Group to his home and family or somehow find a way to let them live while risking all that he loved. He stood there thinking as Tera and Dajimu returned with the body of the escapee. He had them throw the bodies into the hut, along with the bodies of all the other Prajñā agents his soldiers had killed in this systematic assault. The detection seals set throughout the forest ensured that no ninja got in or out without their knowledge.

With a heavy heart Fukurou went through the seals for a grand fireball technique…

Heading toward Kaminari, a squad of Kumo 'advisors' bounded through the trees shaken by what they had seen. The children's screams would stay with them forever. When they gave their report to the Raikage much of the debriefing would revolve around Konoha's Asura. There was no doubt that he was a true shinobi of darkness.

The mangekyō sharingan receded as he sent the captured Kumo shinobi on their way. A seal on his forehead, shaped like a third mangekyō, darkened and shrunk into a pinprick. Three nordic runes for enhancing strength, vitality and stamina diminished into tomoe surrounding the dot. The runes were Uruz, symbolizing physical strength, Nauthiz representing need and granting greater endurance; and Dagaz providing balance and clarity. Fukurou turned to the root agents guarding the caravans full of sleeping children, "Take them to the base in River country." He ordered Fū and Torune.

"Yes Sir."

* * *

**Three Years Later, Konoha**

Fukurou protected the clan from the darkness, while Mikoto did so in the light. That had been the way the chips fell. Though Old Harry had proven an apt leader both at war and in peace, neither he nor Fukurou were much enthused in the process of governing unless forced to it. As a result, most decisions were left in the hands of Mikoto and the new clan council which was mostly composed of men and women concerned about securing the future of the clan in ways that a sixteen year old wouldn't consider.

Day's off from work were rare for Fukurou. The things that Danzo had learned and done in the service of his village would have given lesser men nightmares. For Fukurou it was encouragement to train harder. He had done away with Danzo's old methods of emotional conditioning. Sharingan induced hypnosis and mental conditioning allowed for the same effect with less psychological trauma and fewer dead trainees.

Of course Danzo would never have let an Uchiha near the minds of his new recruits so he had to settle for older, cruder methods like variations of the infamous Mist Genin Test. Not all of the older training methods were gotten rid of. The old fart had copied many of Chun Chu's weapon's training routines, taken Akimichi secret recipes, stolen ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques and training maneuvers from across the Elemental Countries; and had even ripped off the taijutsu training methods of some jounin called Maito Gai.

It was the cream of the crop, and Fukurou subjected himself to the training as readily as he committed all the other trainees. If he was to survive the freakish enemies that Danzo's memories told him was out there he would need every weapon in his arsenal honed to perfection. That not only included the jutsu he used to kill Danzo but everything, mind and body. He would learn though that there was one aspect of his training that was sorely lacking…

Fukurou sat still on the couch sweating. Tsuruko smiled gently. "Ah…" He said before stopping to lick his dry lips, "What are you doing?"

Tsuruko's hand was stroking somewhere above his left knee and her well endowed chest was pressed against his side. _God! This wasn't what he'd intended when he'd agreed to help comfort a grieving widow!_

Tsuruko's hands drifted higher and her smile turned more inviting. Her marriage had been made by arrangement and while she paid respect to her dead husband she had been with him out of duty not love. Likewise her actions now were out of duty to her clan, to ensure that Fukurou was at least amenable to the idea of siring at least one child by the many widows reaching the end of their child bearing years.

As her right hand drifted across iron-hard abs before tweaking an equally firm behind her gaze turned more speculative. The three year difference in their ages was much smaller than the nine year that had separated her from Uchiha Inabi. Fukurou vanished from under her questing hands but not before Tsuruko was able to confirm that he was at least _physically_ amenable to the idea and that yes, she would very much like to volunteer for the task of convincing him to agree to it.

* * *

**AN: Updates are going to come a little slower over the next few weeks as I begin a busy period. On the other hand the chapter length is going to be a little longer. There's an image of Fukurou's Mangekyō on my profile page.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Shadow Play, Work at Home and Lightning Gods**

* * *

_Sasuke glared at him; Tsuruko's daughter, little Chiasa, smiled innocently. The three pregnant woman sitting on the couch behind the boy and his second cousin looked amused. One of them was Mikoto. A seventeen year old Fukurou sighed but answered their questions in the order they were asked._

_"No," He said, "You don't have to call me daddy if you don't want to..."_

_'Please don't...'_

_To Sasuke all he could say was, "I'm sure they taught this at the academy but if you want I can have Nekobaa explain the birds and the bees to you if you like?"_

_"Stay away from my mother!" He yelled._

_"Kid, that's so totally __**not**__ the problem..."_

_Tsuruko, Miho and his mother tittered softly at Fukurou's words. Sasuke valiantly ignored them as best he could, "Stay away! You've done enough to her already! Just stopping by, my ass! Don't touch my mother ever again!"_

_His tirade was stymied when the three women brushed past him and latched on to that Man. "W-what are you doing? H-hey, stop! Stop it! Bad touch! Bad touch!"_

_Fukurou seemed just as flustered by the sudden assault of nubile flesh pressing on his person; hands and mouths leaving touches and kisses upon every inch of exposed flesh. He saw Sasuke watching and rolled his eyes as if to saw, 'What can I do?'_

"_They want me, they just can't stay away from me." Fukurou said._

_Sasuke hastily clapped a hand over Chiasa's curious eyes as the foursome began shedding outerwear, "What are you doing?" He hissed to his mother, appalled, "There are impressionable children here!" He said, shaking his protesting younger cousin from side to side. _

"_I'm sorry Sasuke, __**-smooch-**__ P-please forgive- __**oh right there!**__ Your, Sl__**-smooch-**__ty Mother!" Mikoto said as she moaned wantonly, just like- just like that night- that __**other**__ night!_

"_Magnificent…" sighed prim and proper Tsuruko as she licked a nipple._

"_Mmmmmm…" Miho, one of his aunts moaned as her hands drifted down Fukurou's chest._

"_Ladies…" That Man muttered, slightly muffled by Miho's lips, "Perhaps Sasuke-kun has a point, we shouldn't be doing this in front of the children."_

_Sasuke had now seen more of his mother than he ever had outside of a bath. "Hmmm?" Mikoto hummed thoughtfully, "No, don't stop," she said, "We'll take this to my bedroom. Sasuke, darling, you really need to get along with your new father…"_

_Fukurou hefted up Mikoto and she wrapped her bare legs about his torso. He gripped her butt cheeks with fingers that sank into her flesh. She moaned approvingly and as the four turned to go, that Man threw a parting shot over his shoulder, "Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning…son…"_

_It was the last straw, with murder in his heart he chased after them, grabbing a pair of scissors off of the table. He arrowed down the corridor outside the living room until he came to his mother's room, his __**father's**__ place in their old clan home. He ripped open the sliding door hearing girlish giggling and that Man's chuckles. He leapt into the air, scissors clutched in a bleeding fist, "Don't touch my MO-!"_

"-MMY!" Sasuke cried as he jerked awake. Slowly, he realized that it was only a dream. Relieved, he fell back into his bed with a sigh, _"Just a dream, just a dream!"_

"Sasuke?" The door to his room slid open slightly. Through it he could see his mother… and the swell of her pregnant belly. "Fukurou just stopped by and will be helping me with something. If you want me we'll be in my room."

"Ok Mom!" He answered groggily, still slightly disoriented from his abrupt awakening. He lay there a few more moments before her words sunk in.

…

Dark eyes opened.

…

_-Thump-_

The wall between his and his mother's room vibrated slightly…

_-Thump-Thump-Thump-_

He sat up and reached for a kunai on the nightstand…

_-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-_

Sasuke shot out of his room, skidding slightly on the floor of the Sentō's private level. He whipped around and slid open the door to his mother's bedroom.

_-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-_

"Get away!" He roared.

Mikoto and Fukurou stood next to a half-assembled crib. They stared at him in confusion until finally, Mikoto asked, "Sasuke, what are you doing?"

Fukurou having the ability to extract the answer since Mikoto's kid was still screaming it out mentally, interjected diplomatically by saying, "Ah, you must have been worried. Your mother asked me to set up this box spring for her since the futon is too hard on her back." He held up a wooden mallet, "That was me hammering in the joints, did you think we were in trouble?"

That was most certainly not what Sasuke was thinking but he was mollified when Mikoto swept him into a hug saying, "Oh! Sasuke! It's alright, everything's okay. Mommy and baby are okay don't you worry!"

Normally he'd feel bad about making his mother worried for him. Or he'd be flustered by her fussing. For some reason he didn't this time though, Sasuke just hugged his mother while glaring darkly over her shoulder at that Man. None of this would be happening if his Father was still alive. He'd definitely kick this interloper to the curb. Sasuke would just have to figure out a way to do it on his own.

"_Damn you Itachi!"_ He thought furiously.

Hours later he made his way out of the service district that had sprung up between his family compound and the Uchiha residential area. It was still called that since his clan retained ownership of the majority of the buildings there. As he headed north to the Academy he was hailed by friendly cousins and aunts that worked as landladies, dry cleaners and green grocers. They were the three most profitable civilian professions in the village outside of being a weapon's smith.

It was at once a familiar and achingly depressing scene. Familiar to walk down any street in the area and be greeted with kind words from friends and family. Depressing to pass by old man Teyaki's place and realize that it'd been torn down to make way for a shinobi dorm. He saw apartment houses filled with strangers when he walked about. Where there had been homes with backyards there was now an adult bookstore with some one-eyed, grey-haired jounin window shopping.

The children running down the streets were not Uchiha, though in time there would be. Unfortunately thinking of that brought him to issues that he would rather not face. He still saw his older cousins but most of the genin and chunin within the clan were inducted into AnBu for their own protection lest Itachi come back to finish what he'd started. All that was left were his younger cousins born slightly before or after the Massacre and those soon to be born, including his little brother or sister.

"_Damn you Itachi." _

Sasuke spent his morning classes brooding over things he couldn't change. Most frustrating of all was the fact that he had been held back from graduating a year early by his mother. Regardless of her reasoning he wanted out of the Academy. He'd get away from all the sycophantic teachers, the slobbering fan girls and that idiot Naruto challenging him to a fight every day of the week!

He'd join the special AnBu brigade that his cousin Fukurou apparently led. He learn from someone that was as strong as Itachi if not stronger. He'd get powerful enough to stand on his own and get his revenge… on Fukurou for getting his mother pregnant by stabbing the bastard in the balls. Then, then he'd get his revenge on Itachi for killing almost every clansman _but_ Fukurou… by stabbing _him_ in the balls. His mother might be a little upset with him but he was sure she would understand and forgive him eventually. He was just looking out for her after all.

So caught up was he in daydreams of kunai inflicted testicular trauma that he almost didn't realize that he was now in a spar against another of his classmates, that idiot, Naruto. He'd been going about on autopilot while the instructors had been talking and so missed the beginning of the fight, only avoiding being laid out by a hair.

The idiot gloated, "Hah! Careful Sasuke-chan, I'm gonna kick your ass, bastard!"

"_Bastard!"_ Was all a distracted Sasuke heard, he immediately began thinking of Fukurou.

Then Naruto was shot down by Ino, "Get real Naruto! He wasn't even paying attention! Who would, loser!"

"I know…" Naruto muttered stung by her words, _"what a bitch…"_

"_I know she's his bitch…"_ Was what Sasuke's frustration and worry caused him to mishear from Naruto. There was a funny moment when Sasuke imagined what he would do if things were ever like that between his mother and Fukurou, the next he knew Iruka had him in a sleeper hold, simultaneously dragging him away from a bloody Naruto.

Later a Root ninja brought Fukurou a copy of a report that the Elders had flagged for study. They periodically tried for political leverage over his clan while planting spies in the residential district and AnBu and he took great pride in foiling their plots. As a matter of fact the report had been flagged for his eyes by an agent that they were certain could be trusted, Koharu's daughter. Doing things like that added a taste of delicious irony to one-upping those living anachronisms.

He read the report of the incident between Sasuke and one Uzumaki Naruto. He knew who that was, it went without saying. He was also aware of how the boy was treated. Unfortunately given the nature of circumstances, Fukurou had to keep his distance from the boy as any suspicion of ill-intent might well goad the Hokage into breaking their bargain struck on the night of the Massacre. Even arranging discretely for Uchiha stores and services to provide for the Kyūbi Jinchūriki without bias had resulted in an hour long talk with the Hokage and Elders about the existence or non-existence of any supposed _intentions_.

He would need to send a message to Kana in the Hospital to stay away from Naruto's case files and keep Sasuke from talking too much about what happened. He had no doubt that it was just a scuffle that got out of hand. Sasuke had his good days and bad days when he was all smiles or the slightest thing just set him off. The fact that Mikoto hadn't so much as blinked when he'd barged into her room armed with a kunai was damning.

He'd need to arrange for a Root sympathizer to do the psychological evaluation that was sure to come. The Elders wouldn't hesitate to embarrass Mikoto by inferring mental instability in her line. He needed to nip this in the bud before it became an issue. And he needed to discover if Sasuke really was mentally unstable because intentionally breaking someone's arm in three places during an Academy spar was unacceptable even if Naruto was probably up and about within the ho-

He reread the line of the report, Naruto was up and about not ten minutes later. He looked at his personal copy of the detection grid map and saw a red dot marked _Uzumaki Naruto _sitting in its customary place at a street side food stall. It was situations like this that made him want to damn the Hokage for squandering Naruto's potential on the Academy. That wasn't entirely the Danzo in him speaking either. He only hoped Sarutobi's policy of isolation induced normalcy for Naruto went better than Dumbledore's had for him. The evidence was against it though.

* * *

Rokushō Aoi and his fellow rain ninja were well into the process of torturing Morino Ibiki into reading the secret scroll for them. He wasn't too worried even as the Leaf Intelligence officer stoically endured having glowing hot kunai pressed to his skull. It was best to let the rain ninja have their fun before he brought out his trump, partly because he wasn't completely certain it would work if he used Idate as leverage and partly because Idate wouldn't survive for long if the rain shinobi decided that his foolish student needed to be roughed up a little in order to convince Big Brother to give up the needed information.

He was about to bring the tied up and crying Idate into the equation when the door to the hut exploded. A flash bang went off blinding the inhabitants and prevented them from seeing the three ninja that entered using a modified button-hole formation. The initial flash bang was cover for the half-dozen or so poisoned darts that flew through the doorway controlled using Sōshūjin, the manipulated tool technique, to send them around the guard of a jounin too slow to get under cover and skewer him.

Aoi was just able to avoid the attack by blindly swiping the Raijin no ken in front of him. The amber blade created a haze of lightning that destroyed the two darts that were heading for him. He back pedaled, still blind as the point man of the attackers barreled through the haze of smoke and splintered wood. The man, already using the jutsu, Doton: Domu to harden his skin, plowed unerringly into the two rain ninja that had taken cover behind their umbrellas.

Scooping them up in his muscular arms, the bull-masked man body pressed them through the back wall without breaking his stride. The sound of crashing trees and smashing rocks could be heard through the hole created in the building. The power of the attack knocked over an oil lantern starting a fire even as a viper-masked kunoichi leapt over the fallen table running after Bull, followed by a cloud of darts. That left Aoi to deal with the third attacker who came at him with a hand axe.

Having regained his vision in time to see his attacker coming at him Aoi scoffed at his opponent's choice of weapon. He swung around the Raijin as before, creating a veil of hazy sparks. Without slowing, the baboon masked shinobi slipped under the strike and cut a hole in the veil with his wind enhanced hatchet. The two were less than an arm's length away from each other, close enough that Aoi could see the AnBu's mismatched eyes. One was pale brown while the other glowed malevolent red.

"_Sharingan!"_ This was Aoi's startled thought as he struggled to get away from the attacker in his personal space. The wind enhanced hatchet caught Rokushō Aoi in the right underarm and cut through in an arc that exited out the left side of his neck near the base. The Raijin fell out of nerveless hands and clattered on the floor as Ibiki struggled to burn away his bonds, singing his arms all the while.

The AnBu Hunter squad found them deposited in a clearing a half a kilometer away from the village later that night. Idate was tending to his unconscious brother's wounds and surrendered without a fight. In Konoha Nara Shikaku was reading the team's report, having been sent by messenger pigeon. He was currently in the Hokage's office with the Sandaime and Inoichi in attendance.

"Exactly where we were told to find them," He said to the Hokage, "I wish I knew where they were getting their intel or how Root deploys so fast. That's damn fine work."

He was referring to the three items arrayed on the Hokage's desk by; according to the Sandaime, the leader of Root, Uchiha Fukurou earlier that night. On the piece of furniture lay the Raijin no Ken, a secret scroll and the head of Rokushō Aoi on ice. The Sandaime related that the last item had been left there by the young Uchiha with the air of an owl feeding dead mice to its chicks.

"Huh," Shikaku grunted, "I've been out done again."

The Sandaime gave him a look that he dreaded ever seeing on his wife.

* * *

**AN: Shorter chapter this time. More of Sasuke and Naruto will be seen.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Lessons, Lightsabers and Demon Cats**

* * *

_Jiraiya of the Sannin opened another letter as he made his way to the soapland, "...hmmm...greatest fan...hmmm...recently widowed; measurments... hmm, Bust 106 cm... recently got into a foursome with a younger man... pictures included..."_

_Jiraiya staggered into a massage parlour with a goofy grin and bloody tissues stuffed up his nose, "Lucky bastard..."_

* * *

**A Year Ago, Uchiha Clan Compound**

"M-Me?" Mikoto stuttered, startled. Then she said disbelievingly, _"Fukurou?"_

"No closer than four generations, remember?" Tsuruko told her holding a copy of the family register, "The only ones that qualify in the mandatory age group are you and Miho-dono."

Mikoto sweated, she hadn't really thought that this would happen. Actually when the matter of restoring their clan had been brought up she hadn't thought about the possibility of being paired with a contemporary of her eldest son at all. She'd actually believed that there were no eligible clansmen that met the criteria for her to sire a healthy child with. It might have been selfish but had she known that she might be matched to a boy less than half her age, she might have hesitated to vote in favor of it.

Their clan had always carefully kept track of hereditary lines to ensure the integrity of their bloodline. The Uchiha clan was divided into four distinct family branches that held approximately thirty six members each. The members of the ten to twelve families in each branch were only required to marry within the clan every third generation. The clan's Elders kept track of the matter, preventing cousins from marrying within the same branch too many times in succession. It was a very uncomfortable topic to bring up but it was one Mikoto had to take seriously given that eighty percent of the clan's sharingan bearing ninja had been killed in the massacre.

This meant that the clan had been set back nearly sixty years or more in terms of the number of sharingan wielders that they could reliably produce. They were not likely to go extinct but if the clan was to thrive, then to put it bluntly, they needed to start making babies. In that case there were two entire generations that could take up that task given time and one generation, Mikoto's; that needed to begin doing so urgently.

Her marriage to Fugaku had been arranged by her mother but it didn't mean that she never loved her husband, her world just wasn't that simple. If nothing else, the man gave her two sons that she loved regardless of how things turned out. Mikoto's inner kunoichi on the other hand was unfazed at being commanded to seduce Fukurou. It was far from the most onerous thing that she could have been asked to do as a shinobi. Also there were seven other women like her between the ages of thirty-five to forty that would be required to do this with other men of the clan.

Still, seduce Fukurou? Could she do that after all that had happened between them? She looked at Miho, younger than her by a year and had apparently tried seducing her former student prior to approaching Mikoto with Tsuruko about the issue. Fukurou was mature for a sixteen year old but it couldn't have been easy for the woman, making a play for such a younger man must have been mortifying.

Miho, upon seeing Mikoto's thoughtful look, completely misunderstood what the older woman was thinking. She sighed, placing an arm under her breasts and admitted shamelessly, "I showed him the girls and he ran away," she shrugged, "Perhaps it was a bit much to corner him in the baths but I never had this problem with Nobuyuki-kun. Darling would just leap up and have a go until he couldn't get it up anymore."

Tsuruko took a quick sip of tea to hide her blush while Mikoto, struggled not palm her face in exasperation. Miho continued on blithely, "I think he's a virgin Miko-nee. He turned such a nice shade of red. Darling could only get it up four times a night with special medicine, five if I sat on his face afterward." She cocked her head to a side while sticking a finger under her chin, "A sixteen year old ninja should be able to do it at least ten times before passing out." She muttered appraisingly.

Tsuruko, a normally unflappable ninja, was still a traditionalist and obviously found her older cousin's frank sexual monologue uncomfortable given the younger woman's heated blush. Mikoto by this point had remembered that Nobuyuki, Miho's husband, had died of a heart attack a few years before the massacre. She also caught the satisfied look in Miho's eyes and bit back a sigh. The woman's ditzy act made it easy to discount her, now Mikoto remembered who she was dealing with.

Uchiha Miho had been a genjutsu specialist and poison user that excelled in honey pot type missions. She strung her victims along with false memories of bedroom trysts that never happened and them killed them when their use was at an end. Her marriage to Nobuyuki, a man old enough to remember the Second Hokage in his glory days, had been due to rumors that Miho's excellent erotic illusions weren't just fueled by her vivid imagination. The Elder had hitched her to the most taciturn of possible husbands, thirty years her senior.

According to gossip, Miho had wrung her husband's seed from him the way Mikoto cleaned her son's futon, working it over persistently, vigorously, meticulously, beating it with a paddle, wringing out every last drop of liquid and then hanging it out to dry. Only, in this case, 'hanging it out to dry' was a euphemism for an awkward two hour eulogy where Miho tearfully extolled her late husband's prowess in bed and mourned the loss of his 'Little Nobuyuki'.

Miho turned that fox-look on Mikoto then, "Oh! I know! Miko-nee should be the one to go first! You were his teacher for a while right? Sexy-sensei should give our cute virgin a few remedial lessons, eh?"

Mikoto found herself caught between fighting down a blush and fighting the urge to deck the smirking bitch tittering at her reaction. It seemed like her options with Fukurou were similarly limited. Either take care of Fukurou's 'education' herself, or leave it to the sexual deviant sitting next to her… Miho better not still be writing fan mail to the author of Icha Icha.

* * *

**Present Day, Root River Complex**

Fukurou held his hand as if grasping the hilt of a sword. His continual refinement of the seal array over his elemental training was finally bearing fruit. A dot of light formed in his palm as the Root agent Kensei closed on him with his wind enhanced hatchet. Just as the weapon seemed poised to decapitate the Root commander it halted as if blocked by something.

-SnapHiss!-

With a smell of ozone, that something turned out to be a tightly wound cylinder of wind that then became superheated and electrified turning a blue glowing rod of destruction. The heat that his weapon created was confined to a hazy sheath close to the surface of the cycling stream of plasma. Fukurou's yin chakra gave the blade its shape while his yang chakra let him manipulate the strength of the containment fields constraining the hybrid chakras that he molded.

It allowed him to alter between having a weapon as hard as diamond with a virtual edge that cut atomic bonds and an immaterial blade that immolated all that it touched. It looked a bit like the Raijin no ken but there was no handle and the weapon seemed to have no edge. From Danzo's memories he firmly believed his technique to be superior to the other seal less techniques that the man had known of included the Fourth Hokage's vaunted _Rasengan_. It was an amazing accomplishment but given what Konoha's enemies had to offer, he needed more than a close combat technique.

Kensei leapt back as the blade of light smoothly sliced through steel head of his hatchet without the slightest hesitation. It completely disregarded the wind enhancement and would have lopped off the man's arm if he hadn't trusted his sharingan and moved the instant Fukurou's blade ignited. The fire element softened the metal. The lightning element broke down the structure of the material with high frequency vibrations. The many rotating wind element blades moving along the weapon's length made a thousand cuts a second with each vibration.

It was a blade that could in theory cut anything, but could not in turn be cut by anything. Fukurou called this technique _Kong_ō _no Ken_. It was one of a set of techniques that he was both creating with memories from Old Harry's life and refining with Danzo's knowledge of ninjutsu.

Kensei twisted to one side, only just evading an arrow of light that caused his armor to sizzle and form heat bubbles. Fukurou knocked him flat by detonating the technique that had sped past. It was also detonated in part to prevent it from penetrating the Root base's barrier and alerting passers-by to the location of the hidden installation. Kensei was still tumbling when Kana darting in, in his stead, with an attack that would have gotten anyone without the ability to see chakra.

The Root medic attacked with seven heavy, metal darts coated in poison. Given her profession, Kana preferred conservative attacks that used very little of her chakra. By perfecting her weapon manipulation technique she was able to create an effective attacking style while not wasting energy needed for healing. Her specific puppeteer technique allowed her to be mobile, keeping her darts within a hundred meters of her.

A hand clap from Fukurou released a more sophisticated version of the attack that had killed Danzo. Only this time the flash of light radiated outward from Fukurou's body in a thin shell that slagged the seven darts sent at his front, and the three lightning sheathed darts that were coming from behind. The sharingan implanted in Kana's eye whirled alarmingly as she frantically dodged the spray of molten metal that resulted from her darts impacting on Fukurou's technique. The close combat specialist Zanza was forced to halt his charge and attacks from the remaining two splashed harmlessly on the wall of light.

An alarm bell rang out, signaling that it was time to bring the spar to a close. The barrier faded in a halo of glowing motes and Fukurou breathed deeply, suppressing the hollow feeling in his stomach and the weariness caused by near chakra exhaustion and physical overexertion. The five shinobi training with Fukurou weren't wearing their masks so he could clearly see the seal script that scrolled down one side of Kana's face, from brow to jaw passing over her implanted sharingan. As he watched idly, Fukurou's unique mix of seals contracted into a dark pigmentation around her left eye, looking like the Eye of Horus.

Fukurou's Wedjat Seal stored excess chakra while the subject was at rest and used it to boost physical vitality and chakra levels when activated. For someone like Kana whose real eye was kept in stasis, this allowed for nearly twenty minutes of sharingan usage during a combat scenario, better than Sharingan Kakashi, though only due to the woman's excellent chakra control.

Most of the others were at least capable of going at it for fifteen minutes. The seal was also able to force the sharingan dormant, allowing Kana and the nine other implanted shinobi to retain their binocular vision albeit with dichromatic eyes. A pair of shades or some makeup was all that was needed to cover up the seal.

The group in its entirety was called the Jūninriki or the _Strength of Ten_. They were Fukurou's most capable operators chosen from among those Danzo had specifically trained for eventual sharingan implantation as one of his contingencies. Not wanting to let the death of his kin be meaningless Fukurou took advantage of that contingency after ensuring the chosen agents loyalty with his techniques. In addition to the seals allowing them the use of the artificially enhanced sharingan that had been in Shisui's arm they also had peril retrieval measures similar to those Fukurou had developed for use by his clan's ninja with an additional port key seal placed on the eye itself in the event of death or betrayal.

That option hadn't yet needed to be exercised although a few missions had been dangerous enough to warrant the full depletion of the chakra stored in their seals. A basic flaw in the use of the implanted sharingan was that it took three days to safely use one that had had its supporting seal's store of chakra fully depleted. Three days was how long it took on average to gather enough chakra for twenty minutes of safe usage. As a result the Jūninriki were carefully deployed, mostly in areas of conflict where encounters with Kumo-nin were expected.

Kumogakure had been losing the proxy wars badly. It was at the point that Yugito Nii, Kumo's jinchūriki of the Two-Tailed Cat had been put in the field as the ultimate ante up. Root missions to neutralize rebels, politicians and agents sympathetic to Cloud were running into increasing difficulties. This was why Fukurou was only training with five of the ten Jūninriki. The others were on a mission in the Land of Frost, aiding a defector cross the border into the Land of Hot Water. Those that remained behind trained with Fukurou and the teams of Uchiha genin and chunin.

* * *

**Root River Complex**

Paperwork spawns wherever an organization struggles to bring order to the chaos of a logistical command. While he didn't have to personally approve say, how many mushrooms to order from Vegetable Country to make up for the recruits' growing Vitamin D deficiency. He did have to sign off on things like major purchases of weapons which in the case of a secret organization that was actually thousands of smaller purchases made from smithies all over the Elemental Countries so as to keep both their equipment and operations a secret. There were a couple of shinobi on the payroll whose ultimate ninja technique was dreaming up new ways to rationalize purchasing thousand ryō toilet seats to the Hokage.

In the midst of this battle an alert came in to the command post. Entering the room and standing under several large maps of the Elemental Countries Fukurou listened as the shinobi linked to the team reporting in relayed their message. Somehow Kumo shinobi had caught up to the group escorting the defector. A warning that their defector had double-crossed them was followed by a twinge in Fukurou's arm.

He knew what it was even before rolling up his sleeve. A red patch of skin, spelling the name Murasaki, darkened and then faded away. It was replaced by a single green tomoe that slowly faded as he pulled the sleeve back down. One of the ninja of the Jūninriki was dead and his body consumed without trace by the Yin-Fire seal Fukurou had created for use by Root. The single tomoe meant that the eye was returned safely to stasis in a secure vault at an Uchiha hideout.

Now he had to decide what to do for the four survivors. Their seal communicators were still working and they were relaying info back to command. The fake defector was dead and they had so far avoided capture. Unfortunately they were trapped in a valley with the Niibi jinchūriki on one end already in her demon cat state and a platoon of shinobi at the other end of the valley between them and the buried seal that would take them home if only they could get there.

Fukurou had five minutes left to decide what to do. Any longer and the Jūninriki's sharingan's would start cutting into their life force and kill them outright from chakra exhaustion. On his order's those brainwashed men and woman would gladly sacrifice themselves to ensure operational security and protect their sharingan. Actually, all that he needed to do was take the eyes away with a single hand seal and they would know what to do. The Kumo shinobi had no chance of gaining prisoners, they just didn't know that yet and were still trying to force a surrender.

The smart thing to do was to abandon his people to their fate, live, learn and fight again...

Of the sixteen men in the platoon guarding the end of the valley opposite the Niibi, twelve were dead before any of the Kumo shinobi realized they were under attack. Three of them were finished off by Fukurou whose skill with throwing weapons had advanced to a similar level as his skill with a bow and arrow. The ambush had been easy to set up. While a Root agent bearing the proper seal needed to be within fifty yards of the port key waypoint for extraction, the detection range of each buried rod was a little over a kilometer.

That meant that the rescue squad knew the exact positions of the Kumo shinobi, which was roughly one hundred meters away from the waypoint in a cresent formation facing the ninja they were trying to capture. An order by Fukurou just before the ambush occupied the enemy shinobi with a seemingly suicidal charge by the team in need of rescue. With what was happening before them, they weren't paying attention to the Root assassins that appeared from behind already ready to throw a collection of elementally enhanced weaponry.

Of the four survivors, one was killed by the charging Jūninriki who completed the pincer maneuver. A masked Fukurou parried a lightning sheathed sword with a wind enhanced ninjatō and then hypnotized the more skillful swordsman into fatally stabbing one of his surprised comrades. Immediately afterwards an electrified kusari-fundo strapped Fukurou's dazed opponent to a screaming comrade seconds before the explosive tags tied to each of the fundo detonated.

The Jūninriki were almost within range of the waypoint when Fukurou felt it. Having seen her allies slaughtered, the Niibi jinchūriki decided to forgo taking prisoners and just kill them all. She was charging an enormous Biju Ball, getting ready to simply destroy the end of the valley. With seconds to spare Fukurou activated a technique created for dealing with just this kind of situation, defending against an overwhelming frontal attack.

Light blossomed before him and the roar of the Niibi as it unleashed its attack drowned out part of his words.

"_-no__ō__ Yottsu no Enkan!_"he cried.

There was an echoing boom that filled the valley and Fukurou shook his head as he looked at the violet streamers of Yin-Fire that flowed from what could now be counted as one of the few techniques able to stand up to a Biju Ball.

Fukurou could only shake his head amazed, 'It destroyed two layers in one go!' He thought as the last of his team vanished. Fukurou's technique used a combination of elements to generate barrier of tightly compressed plasma. Its true structure was actually that of several invisible cyclones, flattened and stretched out. They were layered one atop the other to form a shield. Each cyclone was driven and fed energy by what looked like a star at the center of a beautiful Hyacinth flower where each petal was a streamer of Yin-Fire and lightning formed when the cyclones rubbed together.

There were four layers in the barrier Fukurou had created at the cost of almost all of his chakra and two were already destroyed. Desperate, he awkwardly projected the barrier forward and slapped the Niibi in the face with what was basically a giant belt sander, one designed to degrade and deflect enemy jutsu. The creature released an earsplitting yowl as it was driven into the earth by the technique that had suddenly slammed it in the face. Fukurou then released his technique without first killing the star at its center.

First, a blast of superheated air rushed out, scorching every living thing within seventy-five meters of Nii Yugito. This blast of air turned into a hurricane force wind that knocked down the Kumo observers along the valley's ridge. It also likely saved their lives as the plasma ball expanded, igniting the air sending a roiling mass of fire everywhere, including Fukurou's position. However, when the explosion had passed, the only body to be found was that of an unconscious Ygito Nii. Amongst their ranks, Kumo's official position was that the shinobi who defeated Yugito must have died in the attack. This did not however, stop uneasy whispers from those that had seen Fukurou's mask, whispers of a ninja that fought like an Asura.

* * *

**AN: _Kongō no Ken_, the Vajra Blade or the Blade of Indestructible Truth. **

**Also Kusari-fundo, a chain with weights on either end, I had Root Agent Jin throw it like a bolas but its not something that's used that way according to memory.**

**Naruto storyline starts next, Sasuke states his ambition, an old character returns and the Mission to Wave. Sometimes you can't please everyone. Some want a longer chapter and don't care about speed, some want a faster chapter and don't care about length. Some love the twists in the story, some wish it was simpler. I always look through reviews for ones with helpful advice there's no laziness in my writing, I just have my own style. **

**TTFN.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Ninja Housewives, Sages and New Genin**

* * *

_Uchiha Sasuke left his home for another day of training. On his way out he passed Fukurou-nii at the end of the alley, "Are you looking for Mom? She's upstairs." He said helpfully._

_"Thanks, I'm just dropping by," Fukurou told him with a smile, "Have fun playing."_

_"It's training!" Mikoto's son hollered back._

_Five minutes later…_

_The Uchiha Sentō was closed for the day, so no one was there to see a disheveled Fukurou stumble hurriedly out the side entrance used by the upper floor's residents. He sighed deeply, frustrated in more ways than one. Frustrated with his clan for coming up with this ridiculous baby-making initiative, with Mikoto for going along with it, with himself for being sixteen…_

_He adjusted the fit of his pants and walked in a circle about the alley with his torso bent forward because of the tightness...there. Old Harry had been a sixteen year old as well once, so Fukurou knew twice over that his predicament was normal for a boy his age. It didn't help, the knowing, occlumency could only go so far. His past life's English prudishness was just that, the prudishness of a past life. He was Fukurou; and he had been trained to accept orders, to do things far less ethically dubious than bonking his hot teacher, distant cousin or not._

_He found himself torn, "Lace, black silk lace!" between two worlds, "She's young enough to be my great-granddaughter, sort of; and I'm young enough to be her son!" It was all so confusing, "A thong! Her boobs! 36DD or I'll eat my shorts!" The fact was, having risen up against his will; there were some things, and not just his emotions, that simply refused to go back down. It was a normal response for a sixteen year old, perhaps the first natural response of his lifetime of occlumency. That wasn't healthy, all that repression. But, Mikoto… Part of him said ewww, but another part was beating those thirty-six double D's like a drum chanting, "OOGA-CHAKA-OOGA-OOGA-OOGA-CHAKA-OOGA-OOGA- I CAN'T STOP THIS FEELING… DEEP INSI~IDE OF ME!"_

_Fukurou sighed, "The hell," he thought, "Is this living?"_

_He turned around and went back inside._

_On the roof kneeling at the edge, Tsuruko let out a breath, "Looks like we won't need to spike their tea with that aphrodisiac after all." She stated quietly. Miho, who was standing behind her laughed uneasily, "Yeah…" She said as she slid an empty vial into her jacket's breast pocket._

* * *

**Present Day, Hidden Root Medical Complex**

Fukurou rested comfortably in a hospital bed. He left arm had been severely burned before he'd managed to apparate back to a forward base. However his burns had been healed easily. It was instead the series of jumps and the chakra drain of the barrier used to block the Niibi's bijū ball that had conspired to leave him temporarily bedridden after the battle. Other than the late Murasaki, Fukurou was the most injured out of all involved.

He pulled out some of the documents that his subordinates had brought him. If the Niibi could shatter half of his ultimate defense in one attack, what hope did he have against someone like the Hachibi jinchūriki? It was an unsettling thought. He needed more power. He also needed to rethink the security measures on his men. Should he risk exposure of the port key seal just to get his people home safely every time? Could he even do it? The seals weren't a perfect recreation. Just remotely transferring people across the Elemental Countries as they currently did using multipurpose relays was taxing on his men.

One of the scrolls that he'd pulled out was the old Uzumaki technique scroll that his clan had double-crossed Danzo for, back before the massacre. In truth the majority of the scroll was simply a record of births and deaths interspersed with legends from the past of the ninja world. His clan and Danzo had deemed it trash and useless. Fukurou wasn't so sure. At the very least what little he'd seen of it made for interesting reading.

The scroll chronicled the history of the Senju, Uchiha and Uzumaki Clans back through the ages. He knew some of this already from reading the ancestral tablet with his sharingan and later the mangekyō. The point of view however was from the perspective of an outsider to the Uchiha. While certain stories were the same, some were different and others; detailing the powers of the Sage of Six Paths and his supposed journey to attain enlightenment, were completely new to Fukurou.

It was just a story but the Tales of Beedle the Bard had been a story as well. As Fukurou looked upon the ancient chronicles, it was for the first time in ages that someone did so without completely dismissing what they read as fantasy. He read of a priest, a chosen one; who lived then died, only to live and die again. Trapped in his hospital bed for the next the week, Fukurou had little to do but read and think about what the Founder was trying to accomplish by teaching humankind about the Chakras.

Old Harry was not particularly religious but as Fukurou read the chronicles of the sage, he imagined that it was as close to a religious experience that he had ever come to having. It resonated deeply with him, those words, for what the scroll imparted was not a weapon technique or a new power but a dream of a dead man ahead of his time. A dream of Old Harry's past as it should have been and of Fukurou's future if he had anything to say about it.

The Sage's teachings spoke of a world that truly lived. He described a world where everything had a spirit, from every pebble underfoot to every river stone to even the mountains themselves. Fukurou read of the will of the rain drop, falling into the river, flowing into the sea. He read of the sun giving life and warmth, the life and warmth within living beings that raged to conflagrations worthy of volcanoes. He dreamed of the tornado and the monsoon, of the cooling touch of a gentle summer's breeze. He lived in the flashing of lightning that sundered the earth, destroying yet creating. He read of Yin and Yang, the formless thought and the thought given form.

The Sage taught that just as living men changed the world around them so too did the living world react to and alter men. In an era of war, he taught that the passions of men were sent into the world and and that these passions caused the world to give birth to twin spirits that answered to the will of humans. Love was answered with an even greater love and Hate was answered with an even greater hate. It was slightly reminiscent of some Zoroastrian texts Old Harry had once read.

Calamity was then thought to befall humans because they did not understand the world and could not accept the world's hate as they did the bounty of love. The theory of chakra was explained to be a way to understand the passions of the world. A means intended to ultimately allow human's to become a part of the pulse of the world without being swept along with it as happens in death. The Sage's hope was that in understanding their world and its passions people would no longer make war.

The seed of basic chakra theory was all there, as was the foundations of ninjutsu. Knowledge of oneself and the world, strength of body and mind, understanding one's will, the will of nature and the will of others, Fukuoru understood only with the power of hindsight how people could twist these teachings into the arts of war. It was a belief that was intended to become a part every facet of life. War was a fact of life. The Sage's own teachings created a world he would have deplored.

Later, even after recovering fully, Fukurou kept that scroll with him. He intended to eventually give it to Uzumaki Naruto but until then it burned a hole in his pocket, figuratively, he thought of one line constantly. "_To become one with the pulse of the world, without being swept away by it,"_ He wondered what those words meant.

* * *

Three recent graduates, two boys and a girl, sat together before their sensei on the shinobi academy's roof. The man's features were obscured by a blue half-mask that covered his face up to his cheek bones and a forehead protector that was tilted slightly to serve as a makeshift eye patch for the left side of his face. The man hummed slightly, tapping his chin in mock thoughtfulness as he introduced himself.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi," He began, "Hmmm… Things I like and things I hate... I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future… I'll tell you when you're older… As for my hobbies... I have lots of hobbies…" He finished with a wry chuckle, his thoughts on chapter twenty-two of Icha Icha Battle, the one with the milf foursome.

"Erm, blondie, your turn…" He said motioning to one of the two boys sitting before him.

The said blond perked up and fiddled with his new forehead protector as he spoke, "Call me Uzumaki Naruto," He told them clearly. He wore well made clothes in with lots of orange in them and spoke with restrained excitement, "My hobbies are training and eating over at Sasuke's place," At this, Sasuke who was sitting to the far left grumbled. _'You try to be nice to someone just one time for hurting them by accident and they turn out to be a leech with a bottomless stomach.'_

"I like ramen, rice crackers with green tea and fried tofu. I don't like the three minute wait for instant ramen to get ready and people that say mean things behind my back. My dream is to be Hokage!" He stated with a grin.

Kakashi nodded, _"I guess he didn't turn out so bad at all…"_

The jounin turned to the girl sitting between the two boys, "You're up." He said pointing at her.

Haltingly, she began to speak, "Ano… My name is Hyūga Hinata, my hobbies are pressing flowers… my favorite foods are zenzai and cinnamon rolls. I like…" She blushed lightly, changing her words mid-sentence, "...Training. My dream is prove myself to my family and earn the respect of two very important people." She said, nodding her head affirmatively.

Kakashi nodded slowly, "As expected of a Hyūga Shinobi, restrained and dedicated to the ninja arts, though, I wonder?" He'd noticed of course her faint blush, "Young girls these days are more concerned with romance, I suppose it could be worse…"

"You, the broody looking one with the scowl," Kakashi drawled lazily, "Your turn."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke stated brusquely, "I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything...other than my mother's onigiri. What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, kill a certain someone and ensure that that Man never again lays his hands on Her."

"He has a mother complex." Naruto blithely explained to the other two, who looked vaguely disturbed and puzzled in turn. Turning to Sasuke he said, "Give it up man, Mikoto-nee jumps your stepdad in the backroom all the time…"

Hinata blushed, Kakashi just seemed interested. Sasuke scowled, "Fukurou is not my stepfather! They're not even married!" The raven haired boy exclaimed.

Hinata seemed to perk up at hearing Fukurou's name as did Kakashi.

"But they had a baby together didn't they?" Naruto continued puzzled, "I don't see why you'd want to kill hi-"

"**Shut up!"** Sasuke's voice changed from annoyed to openly aggressive in tone with those words. An awkward silence descended on the group until Kakashi sighed and said, "Well that's enough for now, we have a mission tomorrow."

"A mission! What kind? Are we gonna rescue a princess?" Team seven's blond member asked elatedly.

Kakashi just chuckled darkly…

* * *

It was late evening when team seven met again for dinner on Sasuke's invitation.

"Ah… didn't Kakashi-sensei say not to eat anything?" Hinata asked gently.

"He said, _huhuhu_," Naruto mimicked Kakashi's creepy laughter, "Don't eat breakfast, or you'll puke. This is dinner not breakfast."

"Right," Sasuke said, "And if we're going to be exercised to the point that we vomit, then I at least want to get some fluids in me so that I don't collapse from dehydration."

The three were at something of an open air food court that had sprung up in the commercial area between the Uchiha Sentō and the apartment complexes as a natural course of events. Patrons of the sentō usually walked there from the cheap dormitory housing that the Uchiha rented out to genin and down on their luck chunin. As a result, a small food industry had sprung out of supplying affordable, quick and easy meals to the couples, kids and bachelors that wandered between the two locations. With permission from the Uchiha clan several food store owners had set up shop around the square pavilion at the foot of the staircase leading up to the Naka Shrine.

Hinata shivered slightly, drawing closer to her bowl of red bean soup. She was wearing a mandarin style top over black pants with a wide sleeved beige overcoat. The night air was growing cooler and she daintily sipped her meal so as not to show her discomfort. She could have been warm at home with her family but the informal nature of this dinner that she'd been invited to was such a relaxing contrast to the stiff formal meals at her home, she did not much mind being a little cold.

There was also the matter of why she had come. Hinata was not a girl given to fainting and blushing. She was a proud Hyūga shinobi. Still, her cheeks were tinged pink as her eyes took in every detail of Uzumaki Naruto. She liked the way that his spiky blond hair bobbed as he spoke. She followed shape of his body, under the orange hoodie and black pants he wore, with her eyes. The black stripes down each sleeve complimented the tan skin of his biceps. She was Hyūga Hinata and if there was one thing that her early life had taught her, it was to grasp her fate with both hands and work for what she wanted or risk having what she desired out of life snatched away from her. What she wanted most was the acknowledgement of the two people that she admired the most. One was so distant, so far above her, that she never even gained the chance to thank him properly and the other was Naruto who sat easily within her reach.

Sasuke sighed over yet another stupid comment from Naruto. He was a loner at heart but somehow along the way this troublesome blond had latched onto him and didn't want to let go. His mother was no help, he wouldn't ask that Man for advice so the only other option was to just hope he went away… like a rash. They were only eating together because Aunt Tsuruko had invited Sasuke and told him to bring his genin teammates. She usually had a good reason for the things that she did so he didn't question her, he wouldn't have even if it were those harpies Ino and Sakura coming along for the ride. He'd learnt early on that one didn't say no to Tsuruko-dono without having a really good reason to do so.

Naruto simply scarfed down a bowl of ramen, his sixth since getting a free bowl of beef katsudon from the cute nee-chan with the yellow bird. Ichiraku Ramen had a cart here and Naruto was doing his level best to 'show loyalty' for the old man. All was well in his world. He had good food and after taking squint-eyed look at a scowling Sasuke in his blue high collar shirt and Hinata blushing red from the cold, he decided that he was well on his way to having good friends as well.

Together Team Seven ate and rested under the light of paper lanterns. Serenaded by crickets from the nearby river. For the moment they were at peace and forming the beginnings of a powerful bond. It would be tested from that day onward.

* * *

**AN: Not much action in this chapter, just setting up for future events and introducing the consequences of change.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Memories, Genin and Busty Red Heads**

* * *

_He wandered through the streets alone, always alone. The people, they said nothing to him, did nothing to him but always there were the hissing whispers and they left him, alone, alone, alone… Their lips were always tightly pursed, noses wrinkled as if trying not to breathe in something foul whenever he walked by. Parents gently guided their children away from him. Always he was alone, in the end, always alone._

_Early on he learned not to look into their eyes. It was their eyes that spoke, eyes that said to him, "You don't belong here!" They'd then turn up their noses and gaze at him as if they'd stepped in something foul. Or they'd look away as if he would disappear if only they could ignore him to death. He was shunned pure and simple._

_He liked orange because it was the sort of in-your-face color that drew the eye just as his shock of unruly blond hair. He did not think too deeply on it, even negative attention was attention. It was better to be reviled than to be ignored. If they were looking at him… so long as they saw him and knew that he existed…even if they hated him for some unfathomable reason…he'd show them! He'd show them all!_

_One day the boy wandered into a part of the village that he'd never been allowed in before. The Uchi..U…Uchiwa? Anyway, someone killed them all or at least wiped most of them out. Uchiha Sasuke, the boy that he'd see sometimes by the Lake on his way home. He was alone…like him… Did he understand? Did they…did they hate him too?_

_But he wasn't alone. An older woman with delicate features came for him at school one day. The normally stoic boy latched onto her, blissfully ignoring any jibes from his classmates. He watched from a distance. Watching, yearning, wishing and all the while he was feeling a slow burn that he couldn't explain to himself or at least, he didn't want to give a voice to._

_He watched the boy walk away, holding his mother's hand. Somehow… that look on Sasuke's face…Perhaps the boy did understand. He'd have that look too if he ever found his mother waiting for him at the gates. The boy followed the pair into an area of the village that he'd never dared to go to. Would it be the same here as well?_

_It was… to a lesser degree. He wondered the streets dejected. There was no hatred focused upon him but a certain feeling of being watched persisted. The whispers were quiter and somehow less harsh but they were there. He hid under a short walkway bridging the Naka River pulling his knees to his chest and rested for a moment. He just needed a moment then he'd be fine again. It was okay, he'd show them…_

_A reedy voice called out to him then, "Hoh? Interesting…nya..."_

_He startled a bit and looked wildly around himself. He couldn't see the one that had spoken. Spooked, he scurried up the bank and onto the bridge. There was no one there, only a cat. The black cat perked up as he came into view. That was… strange. Most cats balked at being anywhere near him, only the young and the most gregarious of their kind approached him willingly. This one neither fled from him nor approached him._

_Instead, it spoke…_

"_You smell funny…nya…" It purred._

_First, his jaw slackened at seeing a talking cat but then its words penetrated his mind, "Wha- I do not smell funny! You take that back!"_

_The cat was more interested in grooming itself than paying the boy any mind. The boy scowled, being ignored always grated on his nerves, "Hey you bastard! Pay attention!"_

_Uninterested green eyes glanced up lazily, "What is it Stinky Boy?"_

_The novelty of talking to the cat was fading fast, proportionate to his growing irritation, "Hey! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, not Stinky!"_

_The cat tilted its head to one side, "Fishcake?" It said mockingly, "I like fish…"_

_Naruto gave a strangled shout, midway between a frustrated scream and a yell of anger and charged. The cat adroitly leapt onto his head and then from there it hopped onto the opposite rail of the bridge. Naruto, unbalanced by this action, tripped and fell. He tumbled through the widely spaced decorative bars of the railing and landed head first in the shallow water below. _

_Later he woke up to find that the cat, Nanashi as he learned it was called, had somehow gotten him out of the river and into the back room of a clothing store. He'd been afraid of getting in trouble with the owner but apparently Nanashi knew some important people; although, he didn't recognize the name of the cat's master. There had been recognition in the store owner's eyes as he looked at Naruto but the man hadn't balked at providing him with a dry set of clothes free of charge. In fact, after that day Naruto did all his shopping in the Uchiha district. _

_As for Nanashi, it wasn't the last time that he met that stupid cat. Stupid might be a bit harsh though, it did help him master bunshin no jutsu after all…_

_Though, he wondered if this Fukurou guy would spare him a few ninja cats when he became Hokage... _

* * *

Kakashi thumbed through a copy of Icha Icha Battle, shamelessly reading it as he walked through the street. The heat of the sun on the back of his neck made him pause though. He looked at the sky, judging the time. With a put upon sigh, he put away the book and ambled toward the training ground he told Team Seven to meet him at. It was time to see what his sensei's son was made of.

If one went by the time Kakashi told them to meet him at the training ground. He arrived five hours late. This of course, was not just a means of procrastination so that he could read more of his adult book collection, every second that he made them wait was a test. To be fair the Kakashi of his youth would probably have failed this version of the bell test hands down. That was intentional; Kakashi quite thought his younger self was a dick, failing as a genin might have been good for him.

His prospective team had a choice. They could either use the time that he gave them to work together, scout the area; and come up with plan, as much as they were able, to succeed in the survival exam. Or, they could just sit there getting bored and angry, each second pressing them further into a psychological corner that would come to a climax when he revealed his little stipulation about the bells. They would either fracture, as had happened to all the other genin teams that he'd had. Or they would come together and fight.

To be truthful, Kakashi was under pressure to pass this team since it held not only the village's jinchūriki but also the heiress of the Hyūga and the first Uchiha to enter Konoha's regular military forces since the massacre, the son of the current clan leader to boot. That meant that he would need a good reason to fail them. He'd give the team two chances. It was more than fate had given Kakashi himself.

As he walked into the clearing, the kage bunshin that he'd positioned to watch his student's dispelled. It seemed like they'd taken the first option of scouting and planning, promising. He set down an alarm clock on top of a training post. It was one of three placed in a line in the clearing for target and taijutsu practice. He also placed two boxed lunches at the foot of each outer post. After setting the alarm for midday, an hour away, he turned to see how his student's were faring.

No fidgeting, save for a little from Naruto, who'd been painted as a spaz by his evaluator Mizuki. A focused look from Hinata whose eyes were deceptively unfocused, the receding veins belied the impression of inattention the girl was giving. Kakashi knew of the girl's kekkai genkai, the Byakugan, to silently activate it while he wasn't looking and likely doing so without hand seals given that her teammates hadn't noticed. It meant this girl was one to watch out for. She at least had some skill or an understanding of subtlety.

As for Sasuke, his broodiness stood alert and light on his feet, he seemed ready to attack or bolt or whatever it was the survival exercise demanded from him. At least that's what his body language seemed to say. The boy looked like a hunting dog that had just caught a scent, eager. Kakashi guessed that it was time to let them loose and see what they did. He pulled two bells from his pocket and began speaking.

* * *

Momochi Zabuza had a feeling. He'd had it ever since setting foot in Wave Country. He'd had it ever since the board of directors in charge of Tengu Shipping and Hauling, formerly Gato Industries, contacted him about a job. He was a missing nin and in desperate need of funds to make his dream of liberating his homeland from the tyranny of the Yondaime Mizukage a reality. But he wasn't stupid. Stupid missing ninja didn't live long at all.

He had a feeling. Something was off but he couldn't tell just what. He wasn't stupid but deep thoughts weren't his forte either. He planned ahead but when the time came to act he listened to his instincts above everything else. Haku was trailing him, hidden, while Gōzu and Meizu followed him in the open.

The demon brothers were clad in full shinobi gear down to re-breathers and clawed gauntlets. The workers in the front office that they passed through didn't give them a second glance. That bothered him a little, the demon brothers should have been an intimidating sight to the civilians but they didn't even bat an eye. Zabuza tried sensing them for chakra and found nothing more than the strength of an average non-combatant. They didn't move like ninja either.

The secretary that greeted them was a shinobi though, but that was to be expected. Only an idiot wouldn't hire at least a few guards when having dealings with a missing nin lest they betray him. What was surprising was this kunoichi's chakra was at least equal to his own in strength and quality from what he sensed. It was also worrying. He watched the way she walked as she led them through the warehouse to the back office, the demon brothers did also, unlike Gōzu and Meizu however his wasn't just admiring her ass.

Soundless footsteps…

He surreptitiously loosened the straps on Kubikiribōchō. As the woman passed through the doorway leading to the rear of the building he swung his Dantō at the suspected hunter nin. The blade swooped through the air and effortlessly cut through the wall and doorframe. Not the woman though, no, just the business suit she was wearing. The cut clothes fluttered as they fell to the floor. The busty red head flipped through the air and landed, seated on an armchair, neat as you please.

That is if he didn't manage to gut her. Rushing forward with a yell he swung his weapon in an arc that should have cut through the woman, only to nearly be jerked off of his feet when his sword got stuck on something. The penetrating cold that snuck up his arms revealed that something to be a block of ice that had encased his arms, sword and part of the wall.

Wildly he looked for Haku and found his tool unconscious or dead on a couch next to a green eyed teen. There was an older man standing behind him with a hand outstretched, dewy mist rising from his palm. Zabuza found himself immobilized by the creeping frost, only his head and neck untouched. At this point only his training kept him from panicking. Two dull thuds signaled the demon brother's incapacitation. He was up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

But then certain details began to nag at him. The man that had encased him in ice was a member of the Yuki clan, supposedly hunted into extinction years ago. The red head sparked another memory. His attack on the Mizukage hadn't been the first uprising, only the closest that came to actually succeeding. This woman reminded him of one of the rebel leaders that he had in the past been commissioned to kill as a member of the Seven Swordsmen.

These were rebels… bloodline rebels. Maybe he wasn't going to die today but if they hurt one hair on Haku…

"Momochi Zabuza," The woman who he suspected was Mei Terumī, purred his name seductively, "What a pleasure to meet you." She smiled at him teasingly as she crossed her legs, the action doing interesting things to her anatomy under the tight bodysuit she was wearing.

A man came to stand behind her, Zabuza recognized him as Ao, a former member of the Mist hunter nin squads.

"Terumī-sama you were too easy going," Ao scolded, "Who would lead the rebellion if he'd managed to hit you?"

"_Terum__ī-sama is too easy."_ Mei twitched, _"Who would hit on you?"_

"Please consider using a decoy next time. Meeting with such dangerous persons is not suitable for a person of your importance." He finished.

_"Please stop acting coy all the time it's not suitable for a person like you."_ Mei's smile grew a little strained.

"Why in the _old_-"

"Ao," Mei said with a sweet little smile, "Shut up or I'll **kill** you."

Zabuza raised a hairless brow.

* * *

Chiyome, Mitsuko and Motoko, these were the names of his three daughters by Tsuruko, Mikoto and Miho respectively. Their births and the identity of their father was knowledge kept low-key to the general public. The clan as a whole however, was delirious with joy over the event. They were the first children to be born of the repopulation initiative and given the number of new mothers, not the last. All three had their father's eyes. Expectations were high.

Some of these arranged couplings resulted in actual marriages and other arrangements, polygamous and polyandrous in nature. For Fukurou the result wasn't so much a harem as it was a tacit agreement by all parties to maintain an amicable relationship, the word 'amicable' as being defined by each woman usually involved lots of sex. Fukurou's only stipulation was that he be involved in raising his children. It was a pleasant surprise for Mikoto, Tsuruko and Miho.

Most seventeen, going on eighteen year olds certainly didn't have the mental fortitude for dealing with the messy details of raising a child. As a result the women hadn't expected much of him after their pregnancies were confirmed. Contrary to their expectation, once the babies were born, Fukurou's free time was invested equally in caring for each of his children. He never balked at what it took, down to the very tiring and messy details, even going so far as to use shadow clones to attend to each child and mother. It was touching and had actually been better treatment than Mikoto had gotten from Fugaku during both her previous pregnancies.

Fukurou commanded Root and balanced his responsibilities at home and at work as best he could. The port key waypoints and apparition meant commuting to and from the various bases and his clan home consumed little time, allowing him to spend it with his children. At times though, it became necessary to travel beyond the network leaving him separated from his home for weeks. The mission that he was currently one was one of those times.

Fukurou was standing on the deck of a ship currently en route to the Land of Water. Within the ship's hold waited eight squads of Root shinobi. Momochi Zabuza, his apprentice Haku and the Water Country insurgents had infiltrated the country weeks before. Now it was time for Root to do its part. The Hokage had given approval for the mission to go on with the understanding that he would disavow their actions should they be captured or killed.

Seabirds from nearby deserted islands, mere rocks jutting out from the sea, circled and dove into the waters below. In another few hours, they would be officially crossing into waters patrolled by Kirigakure. They needed to be off the boat by then. The two platoons of ninja were an advanced force to lend aid to the rebels and take on certain targets. Their compensation was certain political concessions and uncontested access to any bloodline user that wished asylum within Konoha, of which there were many, including the entire Yuki Clan Remnant.

Fukurou glanced into the sky, his eyes tracking the birds as they flew by. His sharingan flared active and his head jerked to right, like a raptor seeking prey, never once allowing his target to escape his sight. There was a soft rustling of feathery wings as an albatross settled on the railing of the vessel, unnaturally quiescent in the presence of humans so near to it. Fukurou studied the bird's anatomy closely, his eyes catching details one normally needed a dissection to observe.

Moments later a pair of albatrosses set off from the sailboat. They circled high into the air before turning east, rapidly outstripping the boat on the waters below. One carried a thin metal rod in its beak and headed unerringly for the misty inland of the largest island in the Land of Water. The other sought out one of the deserted islands in the archipelago with sufficient cover and isolation to temporarily house two platoons of Root ninja.

If it all went according to plan, there would be three hundred Root operatives, nearly a quarter of Fukurou's forces deployed in Water country within the year. It was a risky gamble with high rewards and an even higher penalty for failure. One way or another Fukurou was going to leave his mark on the Hidden Mist and perhaps through them, the world. Only time would tell.

* * *

**AN: More consequences of change, some subtle. Can you spot them all?**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Old Lechers, Genin Tests and Shadowplays**

* * *

The old man tried; and failed, to hide a leer. His eyes were locked onto the manager's generous cleavage and stayed there. The woman pretended not to notice, valiantly doing her job in spite of the borderline sexual harassment. If he tried to feel her up across the counter again she'd slug the pervert. Until then, "I'm sorry sir, but such a small order should really be handled by the Less Than Carriage Load Department, not Bulk Freight."

The man puffed his chest out like a buffoon and even twisted the tip of his mustache between the thumb and index finger of his left hand, "Aha! But this is a rare batch of Fire Mountain sake we're talking about here! One barrel costs as much as a half a year's tithe to the Daimyo." He leaned over the counter and waved her closer conspiratorially.

The manager was extremely reluctant to oblige him, especially after his elbow contrived to brush against her bust when she started to lean forward, causing her breasts to jiggle. The man blushed slightly but spoke in an exaggeratedly confident tone of voice, "If your company can carry this load quickly and safely into Earth Country, we'll be talking about Bulk Freight later." He nudged her heavy breasts so as to accentuate his point and a vein throbbed on the manager's brow as she nodded stiffly.

"Very well," She aqueisced, "I'll be honored to take your order and look forward to carrying future loads from you."

She ignored the man's lewd comment of, _"I'll bet you're happy to carry my load,"_ and maintained a polite smile. Unseen, a seal on the back of her throat triggered.

**Mi**:: _The Toad Oil Merchant has made contact with the Northwestern Fire Country trade office. He requested shipment of a class two controlled substance into Iwa. Command, how should I proceed?_ ::

**Command** :: _Stand by for orders._ ::

**Kagami** :: _Sir._ ::

**Command** :: _Status of the Rice Farmer?_ ::

K**agami** :: _Rice Farmer has left his field and gone to market. He's currently negotiating favorable prices with a cousin to the west._ ::

Fukurou stopped what he was doing and looked at the starless sky above. Rice Farmer was Orochimaru. Cousin to the West, Northwest, Northeast and East were Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure and Kirigakure respectively. He began thinking furiously, biting his lip as he thought. He moved pieces, measured outcomes, examined memories; both his and Danzo's, he weighed his options.

**Command** :: _Pass a message to that effect on to the Toad Oil Merchant. He's currently trying to sell Mi some bad sake. Use two levels of separation. Have one of the greedy merchants sell the info to yakuza. The Onizawa and Fuchida families are that man's information trading partners, they'll pass it along._ ::

Kagami, the code named Root agent in charge of controlling deep cover operatives in Northern Fire Country and the nations along that border, was already selecting an expendable dupe from a list of bribed officials.

**Kagami** :: _Yes sir._ ::

**Command** :: _Mi, coordinate efforts with Kagami. He will provide details. Accept transport order, send it above the table. Most likely our man is fishing and wants to trace the secure lines._ ::

**Mi** :: _Yes sir._ ::

Jiraiya of the Sannin sat atop a toad at a roadside temple. He frowned as the clone he sent to infiltrate the Tengu Corporation management offices came up empty. Summoning another toad, this one sleek and darkly pigmented, he gave it an order; "Go back in there and keep an eye out for anything strange," He told the silent amphibian who nodded and disappeared in a shimmering of air.

Three days later he'd abandon the investigation into certain allegations made about the company due to recovered intel from imprisoned criminals. He reasoned that a counter terrorism group from AnBu would do better to look into the suspected terrorist links of the alleged smuggling operation. Leads on Orochimaru were rare and needed to be followed up immediately when they came. What the hell was the man doing in Suna?

* * *

Kakashi took a single step forward, evading the brace of shuriken coming from his blind side. He leaned forward slightly, ducking under the leg that kicked at him. Naruto was attacking, the question however; was whether or not he was going at it alone. He reached out with a hand. It wasn't a strike, just a little push that would tip the boy over and make him land on his head if he wasn't agile enough.

His hand passed straight through Naruto…

Kakashi's eyes widened, "I definitely felt the wind displaced by that kick, genjutsu?" He wondered. Being caught out by an academy graduate's illusion would have been mortifying. Fortunately the answer was somewhat simpler and from the perspective of the true test of this survival exam, promising. The bunshin of Naruto dispelled revealing Hyūga Hinata perfectly concealed in its shadow.

It made Kakashi wonder, that kind of co-ordination didn't happen overnight. Further speculation was halted because he urgently needed to withdraw his hand from the hornet's nest that he'd inadvertently stuck it into. He yanked his appendage away from the girl's questing fingers and pivoted. Seemingly as an afterthought he smashed a low-running Naruto in the face with the heel of his sandaled right foot.

Judging the right moment in a split second, his left hand reached out like a striking serpent. He grabbed at the loose cloth of Hinata's sleeves. For a ninja, anything can be a weapon, most likely the extra material was meant to hide the movements of her lower arms. Kakashi used it against her. Holding onto her sleeves, he pulled her hands together without touching her and risking a counter attack. Then using the momentum from his turn, the jounin jerked Hinata past his body and hurled the girl at Naruto who was in the process of kipping to his feet.

The boy and girl collided with a meaty thwack and tumbled to the ground stunned. Kakashi would have made a snarky comment then, just to see how well the two handled the set back. Unfortunately, several pointy objects set to skewer him put a hold on that thought. The log that he replaced himself with bounced on the ground with a thump, it was pierced multiple times over. Seconds later Kakashi leapt down from a tree. His eyes were fixed on the location the shuriken came from.

Naruto and Hinata were already gone.

He wondered, "Did Sasuke just help them escape?" A slow smile spread across his face then at that thought, _"Interesting…"_

* * *

A command group of Root shinobi remained with Mei Terumī and the constantly relocating rebel main base. Although they were in largely unfamiliar territory, Fukurou spread his operatives throughout Water Country in four man squads. Using the seal network for communication made this a highly effective tactic as the squads were engaged in guerilla warfare with the support of the rebels and rebel sympathizers.

It was a well coordinated operation that was slowly but surely breaking the Mizukage's hold over his country. The Rebels had been primarily fighting with the goal of saving as many advanced bloodlines as possible. With Root establishing numerous human smuggling routes out of the country, Mei's forces were left with fewer dependents than able-bodied warriors and thus had more resources for fighters. The rebels began fighting offensively.

Root aided their efforts by setting ambushes wherever possible for the Hidden Mist Loyalists. They utilized procure on site procedures to supplement their stores for as long as possible before returning to a port key way point for rearmament. This method was also used to recall agents and infiltrate the country without either the rebels or the Mizukage knowing the Root's true numbers. Fukurou fought with an eye to the future. The Water Country rebels may not always be allies and the Elders were trying their damndest to find a way to discredit him. Setting Jiraiya on his trail had to have been their doing.

Squads of Root Shinobi would spread out to gather intelligence while under constant threat from hunter ninja. When a target was ascertained and approved by Mei, the squads of Root shinobi pooled their talents to take it down. The constant economic and political strain of so many failed missions and perished shinobi served to weaken the Mizukage's military power. This in turn aided the rebel's position.

Ao, the Rebels' top lieutenant watched them all like a hawk with his 'acquired' byakugan. Fukurou chose to do nothing about the man for the moment save for preserving the identities of his covert forces by keeping as many of them away from the him as possible. Ao didn't get very far in any case. For every team put under surveillance by their Mist shinobi guides, there were two more evading discovery long enough to plant portkeys seals all over the countryside. The only places not covered were Kirigakure itself and a few other strongholds like the Daimyo's inner city at the capital.

Ao's paranoia served a purpose much as Zabuza's violent reputation did. They made Mei a more attractive option to the disaffected and the fence-sitters in the civil war. Zabuza was well regarded by those who wanted an end to Yagura's reign but didn't feel comfortable supporting a blood line user. Ao reached out to the veteran's that saw the Mizukage's purges as a weakening of their nation's forces.

Zabuza more often than not intimidated defeated shinobi into surrender and sympathizers into greater collaboration with the rebels. Ao trained and commanded squads of AnBu level ninja and oversaw security. This left Mei free to plan fresh attacks, and use soft diplomacy with agents of the Daimyo's court, the Daimyo himself having gone into seclusion at the onset of the civil war.

Due to her actions, several bloodline clan ninja stayed behind to fight for their country, thereby mitigating the future drain caused by the mass emigrations. Obviously, Mei was hoping that the families of those shinobi would ultimately choose to return to Mist should the war end in the rebel's favor. A kind and level-headed woman, there was nonetheless a ruthless shinobi at her core.

Prisoners were treated humanely and a constant psychological battle was fought for the loyalty of Water Country's shinobi and civilians. A war the rebels were winning as the Mizukage ravaged his own country in an effort to eliminate the proscribed bloodlines and rebels. It was an effort that killed the guilty and innocent alike and starved the general populace. Mei did not however, balk at gruesomely melting the bloodline hunters that were caught red-handed. And the Water Rebels only fed fighters and their close relatives.

She was a truly formidable woman. In the few battles that she became personally involved in, it became quickly evident that there was more to her than a pretty smile and a conniving mind, to quote Zabuza. Mei was someone that very few could fight against or even beside without being horrifically killed by her power. The Mizukage had been sending assassins after her for years. This was another reason why gaining Zabuza's aid was useful. The man was a lightning rod for the assassins previously meant for her, Haku spent most his day keeping knives out of his master's back.

* * *

Kakashi was waiting in another clearing when Naruto attacked. A volley of shuriken flew over the attacking genin's head at Kakashi. The man put away his book as he caught the thrown weapons, already slinging them at Hinata who was charging in tandem with Naruto from out of his blind spot. His attention was forced back onto blond when the boy came within inches of carving open his face with a Kunai.

"_Wha-"_

His fist met only air as it passed through a bunshin. Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly in thought. He twisted to one side in order to avoid being tagged by a trio of kunai. Then he had to leap away from the trap they sprung. All the while he was thinking about what he'd seen. A shift in the air currents on his right warned him of an attack a half-second before it came.

This time instead of dodging, he tried to put the boy's arm in a joint lock, only to come away with part of a torn sleeve. The burst of chakra he felt and sudden, accelerated movement confirmed his suspicion, "Shunshin…"

And it was combined with a flawless bunshin as a distraction rather than a burst of leaves or smoke, ingenious. Kakashi honestly found himself impressed a little, the kid reminded him of his sensei with that maneuver. Then images of Naruto started flickering all around him. All save one was a bunshin but Naruto was flawlessly using shunshin no jutsu to dash from image to image a feat only made possible by his massive reserves.

It was like fighting a sea of blond haired doppelgangers. He was literally swarmed by them. That too was a familiar feeling. He'd known a kunoichi once who favored highly overwhelming attacks, "Just like Kushina-san, no concept of over kill. More is better than less." Kakashi was completely on his back foot when Sasuke and Hinata joined in to triple-team him.

For a moment Kakashi actually felt quite happy. Then Sasuke attempted to light him afire like a torch.

_"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"_

* * *

The size of Root had greatly expanded since that night when Fukurou took control of the command group and the four platoons of shinobi hidden in Danzo's Konoha base. Root had initially been started as something of a cult of personality comprised of a core cadre of operators cherry-picked from AnBu by their commander, Danzo, for the organization. With nominal control of AnBu, Danzo hadn't needed Root to be large. Or rather, keeping Root limited to four hundred agents was an unavoidable necessity for a force of essentially expendable agents carrying out politically and morally questionable actions on behalf of a nation that disavowed their very existence.

Fukurou had used Danzo's memories to gain access to Root's top commanders and supporters, quickly suborning them to his cause. The compartmentalized nature of the organization meant that by controlling those fifty or so key individuals, all four hundred agents automatically came under his thumb, some without ever even knowing that there had been a coup. From there, the next five years were spent expanding.

Danzo already had arrangements through middlemen with suppliers of smuggled goods, yakuza, terrorists, and several legitimate businesses. Fukurou parlayed these assets into shadow partnerships and controlling interests in both the businesses that traded within Fire country and those who preyed on that trade. The funds thusly acquired were used to run day to day operations. Partially decoupling from the village's finance alloyed Fukurou the independence to expand which in turn translated into greater military and economic power.

By the time Fukurou began negotiating with the Water Country rebels on behalf of the Hokage. Root had tripled in size over a five year period. With twelve hundred agents, it was equal in size to AnBu and counted for a little less than one tenth of the hidden village's military might while costing even less than the AnBu program as Fukurou's business empire expanded. Like Konoha's regular military forces and AnBu they were highly dispersed across the whole of the Elemental Countries. The greatest concentrations were actually to be found as deep cover agents or hidden as workers for the various legitimate businesses that Root was secretly connected to.

One such example of the latter was Tengu Shipping and Hauling, a company that transported goods across national borders over land and by sea. The Water Country rebels believed them to be a privately owned company merely aiding Konoha in exchange for future profit from economic concessions and trading rights between Fire and Water. Even if the truth were to be revealed, the Tengu Corporation was hardly the only merchant house of its kind to be infiltrated.

Following Old Harry's experience on the matter, Fukurou ensured that his movements were largely obscured to his rivals and allies alike. The Commander of AnBu, Nara Shikaku, however; manage to glean a clearer picture of their numbers and operation methods. As a concession to the Hokage, for approval of the Mist Campaign, Fukurou eventually indirectly confirmed the Nara's suspicion that Root was using a system of human summoning.

It wasn't a terrible loss as far as security was concerned. There were other facts about how Root went about their business that people simply couldn't figure out. Ao and Mei still believed that Root was simply a task force of Konoha AnBu. This was in part because they couldn't believe that Konoha would allow an independent entity to amass hundreds of highly talented shinobi without the Hokage being able to control them.

The Hokage and Shikaku knew otherwise. What they didn't know was where these people were being trained. This more than anything caused the Elders to intensify their efforts to neutralize Fukurou's influence. Seventy-five percent of Konoha's standing force came from clan-specific, affiliated shinobi villages and pseudo-orphanage, shinobi training centers located across Fire country. These shinobi were processed through Konoha and assigned ranks based on aptitude and ratified field promotions from the Hokage.

Not one of the ninja declared by Fukurou a year after the death of Danzo had ever previously shown up on a Konoha roster. It was just one of many unanswered questions about the new Root. A highly successful asset, but one that the Elders did not believe could be trusted. The Hokage, simply chose to remember the look in Fukurou's eyes when he promised to maintain peace with the village, and chose to have faith.

* * *

Kakashi tried to remain nonchalant as he watched Sasuke and Hinata triumphantly hold up their captured bells. He watched as Naruto kept a brave look on his face from where he'd been tied to a training log. Looking to one side he casually said, "Well, it seems like Sasuke and Hinata pass, better luck next time Naruto-kun."

They boy's face crumpled for a moment before he tightened his lips and looked Kakashi in the eye while maintaining a tremulous smile. "Y-yeah," He said as the others seemed uneasy, "I guess I didn't get a bell… That's alright, just you wait and see. I'll-"

But Hinata stuffed her bell in his mouth, inadvertently causing the boy to gag. Kakashi turned a surprised eye to her although he was secretly cheering on the inside. The Hyūga heiress stared back defiantly at him, "Naruto-san can have my bell." Her voice stood firm as she said this but her frame trembled, "Failing a single exam is not a problem for me unlike this dunce that failed twice. I have no wish to pass in such an ungraceful manner." The girl was terrified of what the consequences of her actions might be and couldn't quite hide it. Even Naruto noticed.

Juggling the bell between his teeth he started, "Hinata –erg"

Sasuke shoved his bell in Naruto's mouth, saying to them, "Going to the academy was just a farce anyway," He revealed, "I was still going to be a shinobi regardless of how things turn out here." He gritted his teeth, because this meant that he'd be working for that _Man_ but it couldn't be helped. Besides, he'd be getting rid of Naruto this way. Sasuke smiled wanly at the thought.

Kakashi watched the three of them bicker for a while over who would fail. Only the way this argument went was far different from all the other times that he'd posed the Question To a genin team.

"No I deserve to fail! I'll become Hokage even If I fail three times!"

"B-be silent mongrel! Are you telling me what to do? Know your place! _I_ fail!"

"_Mongrel_… Whatever, shut up the both of you… Take back your bell Hinata, Naruto can have mine. It doesn't matter if I fail anyway."

"I refuse to be party to nepotism!"

"What she said!"

"Shut up Naruto. You're helpless. Do you even know what that word means?"

"Yes! You can take your fruit cocktail and stuff it!"

"…"

"…"

"Eh heh… I said something stupid, didn't I?"

"…that…goes without saying."

"I rest my case."

"Mean!"

Were they idiots? It was hard to tell. He did know one thing though…

"You all pass."

…

"EHHH?"

* * *

**AN: Naruto's vocab flub and my attempt at a pun. The word Hinata uses for Nepotism is Mibiiki. Naruto breaks it down into Mi for fruit and Bi for tail (Bibu). Hinata is kinda tsundere now. I personally hate posting author notes with no story so I always wait until I'm ready to post before writing these things. I got a lot of helpful feed back, thank you, it helps me to write a good tale. I haven't been ignoring this advice but rather I have been implementing it carefully. **

**This story follows canon only loosely, change is not there for the sake of showing there is a change but because the plot of Uchiha Fukurou revolves around the ripples created by this character. We each have a story and in different ways, to different degrees we touch the world and change it; even as the world touches and changes us. **

**Sometimes the challenges are like a mountain looming large on the horizon. Sometimes, we go along oblivious of the challenges that face us until things just seem to blow up in our faces. That's life and Fukurou is getting a dose of it. Next on Uchiha Fukurou, Of The Womb, The Mirror and Painful Contemplations. Powerful enemies are the last thing he has to worry about not having. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of The Womb, The Mirror and Painful Contemplations**

* * *

Koharu and Homura met for tea. Homura planted a seal on the floor as he sat down, not entirely feigning the groan that ground out as he bent his knees. For a time the two drank in silence, "It is done." Koharu stated.

"Oh, he took the bait?" Homura asked surprised.

Koharu nodded, "For all that he is, he can still be outsmarted."

They were careful not to use any names.

"How did you convince them of what needed to be done?" Mitokado queried.

"A slight reworking of past events and evidence. Sarutobi left the job of covering things up to us after all." Koharu told him. She faltered slightly before continuing, "And a loyalty enforcing curse seal on one."

"How cruel, to be slain by they he trusted in ..." Homura stated.

"Yet, as sad as it is, such cruelty is just the nature of our world of shinobi." Koharu finished the old proverb.

For Konoha...

* * *

_His name was Kurosuki Ranmaru and his life was one of many tragedies that played out across Water Country in this era. Sickly from birth he was hidden away, entrusted with a retired retainer from one of the few remaining allies of his clan. This was not a form of mercy. Mercy in the Land of Water was a swift death for the sickly, the orphaned and the crippled. He was a confirmed bearer of his clan's doujutsu based kekkai genkai the Amatsugan, a talent of lesser renown only due to its rarity and the fact that its traits had only recently begun to reliably express themselves safely. It imbued one with the ability to cast illusions that confounded even the Byakugan and Sharingan and the talent to see the lifeforce within all living creatures. Even a sickly wretch like Ranmaru was hoarded like gold for future harvesting after puberty. Sparing his life was not a kindness._

_He had no knowledge of how truly horrible a fate was planned for him, one sacrifice in a long chain of atrocities that began with a captured Uchiha during the first war. He had no understanding of what was happening save that he was left behind and **alone**. One day his mother took him to this temple overlooking a village and left him there. The shock at the suddenness of his abandonment initially prevented him from crawling after her, too weak as he was to stand. If he had he would have asked for her mercy rather than this, being left behind on this temple on a hill...**alone**. He lived on his own with no contact with others save for the village headsman who covertly left him food in the guise of temple offerings to eat and fresh linens to sleep in._

_He had no means of understanding the causes of his situation, so he could not have known just how senseless his clan's destruction really was. So many years of struggle to produce a viable heir and maintain the bloodline, so many dead capturing the samples needed to perfect it now all for naught. It was all gone with a single order from the Mizukage that disregarded decades of sacrifice and loyal,** loyal** service. Just like that, one of the few countermeasures against the Sharingan and Byakugan that Hidden Mist possessed was all but lost. Only Ranmaru alone remained._

_And so he dreamed. Children in Water Country were raised on the legends of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Some were upheld as paragons of the shinobi way. Others were quite literally monsters. Their swords were considered national treasures and each had a tale to be told. Ranmaru's favorite was the Rait__ō__, Kiba. He imagined going on adventures, not as a hero… but as a friend of the hero. _

_Yes, he could picture it even now, over the screams of the villagers in the decimated town below. He would be the eyes and ears of his hero, Kurosuki Raiga, a good name. His hero wouldn't care that he couldn't walk very well or for long. He would be Raiga's eyes and watch from his hero's back. They would have so many adventures together…_

_This was how a soul weary Ringo Ameyuri found the last Amatsugan bearer. The boy's eyes were open but his mind was turned inward. The child did little but smile as Ringo's shadow loomed over him. The man clenched his teeth and sighed through them. The smell of burning houses and worse hung upon the air, the screams had fallen silent just a few minutes before he'd reached the temple. "All this death to kill just a single child." His lips thinned at the thought and he sighed, **"I do my duty child."** He whispered._

_The boy did not answer. Ameyuri stood before him and just looked at the catatonic Ranmaru for a moment. He readied himself as the child's chestnut eyes focused on his own._

**"**_**Have you come to kill me?"** Ranmaru asked the man curiously._

_Ameyuri was a loyal follower of the Mizukage, oath bound to obey even the most troubling of orders. He nodded solemnly, **"Hai, by order of the Mizukage…"**_

_The boy was no longer listening, running a fever and delirious, Ranmaru held out his hands with a smile, **"Raiga… Raiga… Papa…"**_

_Ameyuri showed him what mercy he could._

_Ranmaru was simply ecstatic that he didn't die **alone**._

_The Mist Rebels arrived too late to save village. None of them had any idea what the Root shinobi would find in the temple on the hill, the Kurosuki clan hadn't survived long enough to contact the Rebellion so they didn't know much about the Amatsugan bearer. The Kiba were dutifully handed over to Mei's people to do with as they pleased. Ranmaru's body was taken by Root with no argument. Their access to the suspected bloodline wielder was undisputed._

_A letter of resignation was sent to the Mizukage by a crane. It was a loyal retainer's protest of his master's actions. The blood speckles on a corner of the scroll was proof of how Ringo Ameyuri resolved his honor with his conscience. His body was cremated with those of the villagers. He lived as he'd died, by his swords. _

Fukurou looked up at the starless sky and sighed. The child's body had been placed in a cold, time contraction chamber on Mu Base until it was ready for autopsy and study. The chair that he sat in was comfortable and the lighting was pleasant as well yet he felt uneasy. On all accounts he should be happy to be away from the chaos and violence of Water Country's civil war. No massacres to witness, to pitched battles to fight, no Mei trying to seduce him…

He chuckled at the last one, Mei's desires were remarkably domestic in nature, a handful of children and a husband to take care of them while she was at work. Recently her target had been shifting to Zabuza much to the man's apprehension. Fukurou signed a request for more lighting fixtures in the green houses and rejected another request, this one for a fourth dilation event for a training group that had already experienced three. Mu Base wasn't like the other Root bases. It was perhaps the safest place imaginable for Fukurou, the seat of his power, perhaps literally. Yet he felt uneasy.

According to the Uchiha ancestral tablet the capabilities of each Mangekyō was unique to its wielder. Fukurou found that he had little need for Amaterasu, described in the ancient text as the _Shining-Flames-of-Heaven_. His own techniques held the potential to surpass mere Yin-Fire so why even risk his eyes casting the comparatively subpar Enton? He did however develop a fire manipulation ability derived from his mangekyō and put it to good usage in controlling those of his techniques that were more difficult to master. In particular among these were the more volatile iterations of his kekai tōta, self-styled the Gyōton: Dawn Release, skills.

His application of Tsukuyomi, described by the tablet as _Ākāśa__-Under-The-Crimson-Moon_, was often oddly inverted. Never having liked manipulating others although highly skilled at it regardless, Fukurou's Tsukiyomi seemed to only work at its best when ensnaring _Fukurou,_ himself!

It made a weird kind of sense though, considering that he had spent the better part of his life strictly exercising control over his own mind using Occlumency. The personal subjective space-time dilation allowed him the advantage of cramming several hours' worth of image training, study and rest into just a handful of seconds, a tiring but useful ability. The doing the opposite to a person's sensation of time would have been an even more useful skill in battle, if only he could use it on someone other than himself. Generally Fukurou stuck to his sharingan's more passive enhancement of his illusion-casting. What was the point of using Tsukuyomi if it harmed him as easily as it did his opponents?

Susanoō, _His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness_, seemed beyond him. Eventually Fukurou found that his problem lay in the fact that he simply didn't… **_Hate_** enough. Ironic since he was the **_Konoha no Asura_** that Kumo had placed a bounty on, not that they knew it was really Uchiha Fukurou they were after. They merely described his _Gyōton: Shitenoō Yottsu no Enkan_, the distinctive technique that had held off a bijū ball on the off-chance that its user had actually survived the fight with Yugito and not been incinerated.

Even after finding a way to ameliorate the adverse consequences of using his Mangekyō, so long as he was careful to fully charge the seal on his forehead, Fukurou found that most of his eyes' abilities were useless to him. That belief lasted until six months after having taken full control of Root. It was inevitable by then, that Fukurou would eventually try to apparate while his mangekyō sharingan was still activated. Where normally his sharingan merely saw a twisted tunnel that he was quickly squeezed through, his mangekyō perceived something more than just a warping of space.

_Somehow his eyes showed him an alternate path that turned upon itself in a seeming three dimensional impossibility. Following this path led him to a vast space seeming to be composed of cubes etched with runes. He didn't understand at first what was going on and couldn't suppress the nervous thrill that passed through him. This definitely wasn't the River Base. _

_It was a space so vast that he couldn't see the limits of it, merely a starless void softly illuminated by an all pervading light from a distant sun or full moon. As he calmed himself he noted that the single point of illumination couldn't possibly account for the all suffusing nature of the illumination. The light seemed to pulse in time with his pounding heart and the cubes drew together or apart seemingly in accordance to his will. This was how he discovered Taiz__ōkai, the Womb Realm. _

The Womb Realm, as he called it, was a pocket dimension that perhaps paradoxically existed both within his metaphysical being while yet physically existing somewhere beyond space and time. Fortunately leaving was simply a matter of apparating with the mangekyō activated. The place became even easier to get to with time and practice. Over a period of weeks he experimented, learning how to send objects and individuals to and from Taizōkai. The dimension's true value however would remain unrealized for some time after its discovery.

It was in exploring the properties of this vast dimension that Fukurou's seemingly most useless mangekyō skill, his Tsukiyomi's propensity for self hypnotism, crystallized into something more. The words of the Uzumaki scroll had long stayed with him and he even spent time meditating while within the Taizōkai. As his mind pondered on what it meant to become a part of the pulse of the world, Fukurou used his Tsukuyomi to alter his perception of time.

_It wasn't until then that Fukurou understood that it meant to be the master of Taiz__ō__kai, a realm both of him and beyond reality. At first, all he felt was simply annoyance when the time dilation effect didn't exceed a rate of three minutes for every second passing in the real world. His frustration changed to shock however, when Miho derisively drew attention to the scraggly, nine days of stubble that had accumulated on his chin in the space of what was impossibly a little under an hour and a half._

Root gained new recruits from three sources. They came from allied ninja clans within Fire Country, especially the recent acquisitions emigrating in from Water Country. Shinobi headhunted from the AnBu program, of which there had been only a handful in recent times. And the most plentiful, orphanages and juvenile reform centers secretly sponsored by front companies and staffed by deep cover agents.

The adolescents were mostly seen as a long term investment and many did not make it into Root's training program. The older teens from the juvenile reform centers came in as youthful offenders and the homeless from big cities desperately grasping a chance to avoid time in an overcrowded prison and a free meal. They left as upstanding and responsible members of society with a wide range of useful skills, frequently finding gainful employment.

Those who did not join Tengu Corporation or any of its subsidiaries were usually self-employed with seed money provided from charities affiliated with the reform centers. Many became carpenters and blacksmiths, turning out to be amazingly talented for their youth. The list of skills taught to residents extended from masonry to cooking, one group became farmers and formed a rather successful cooperative that produced rare medical herbs in addition to a variety of marketable crops on land indirectly acquired by Root.

These graduates spread throughout the Elemental Nations, some of them were more than they at first seemed. But they all were grateful for the chances given and donated what they could to their benefactors, writing of all the interesting things that they'd see on their travels, sometimes planting an innocuous black cylinder as a symbol of setting _root_ in a new country.

It was all made possible by that one technique. The ability that Fukurou discovered quite by accident after having it inadvertently pointed out to him by Miho, _Kamishinjin_, the ability to control and manipulate reality within Taizōkai as he wished almost with full impunity, even down to the passage of time. While creating Taizōkai took no chakra at all, manipulating it and maintaining multiple effects beyond the normal placid space filled with nothing but lukewarm air and floating squares drained Fukurou to the point that he was only able to keep it going for twelve hours at a time.

Even so, the world did not end when he left it. Not feeding chakra to Kamishinjin merely returned things to a placid state under the soft light of a single distant star that pulsed in time with Fukurou's heart. Fukurou was still linked to the seal communication network while within Taizōkai although anything else that wished to enter or leave required the power of his mangekyō and express permission from him to do so.

Thus, being the pragmatic person that he was, it was no surprise that he created Mu Base, the most secure of the Root training facilities within Taizōkai. He moved equipment, supplies and people into that space to construct the base and for twelve hours at a time twenty trainees under time dilation would spend the equivalent of ninety days undergoing hostile environment training.

One collection of floating squares would be arranged to create a gigantic water basin, practically a lake, upon which a variety of sea conditions could be simulated. Others would have jungles, deserts and anything else that Root's demented trainers could imagine. There was even a hollow chamber where trainees could train under the influence of higher than normal gravity.

New recruits completed their year's worth of training in a week, real time, a period Fukurou divided into twelve hour long shifts of maintaining the Kamishinjin created time dilation and altered environments in certain areas. He then released the effects before he reached his limit. Even so he would often spend the time in between the shifts exhausted while his young recruits grew closer to him in age by a year. Kamishinjin blurred the boundaries between reality and illusion much like Izanagi did, but it was closer in nature to the Sage's legendary Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu which allowed one to give form to imaginings. Rearranging the floating cubes was still just about the only thing that didn't require chakra. As a result, food supplies and furniture were taken from the material world while in a few areas the cubes were shifted about and converted into barracks and farms in order to cut down on the amount of strain on Fukurou to provide things.

The Jūninriki members who were adept at genjutsu helped with reprogramming and flash educating the constant stream of juveniles that passed through the doors of their public facilities. Fukurou's only involvement was in acquiring the skilled masters who would provide the necessary experiences and skills. The education and training occurred within Taizōkai while under time compression letting the temporary disappearances of masters and students pass unnoticed. It was slowly in this manner that Fukurou turned Root into a twelve hundred man strong crack military unit. Although to outsiders things must have seemed to happen with alarming swiftness...

Fukurou languished on the wooden floor, moaning in mock defeat. His one year old daughters Mitsuko and Motoko giggled merrily as they wrestled with his arms, twisting this way and that to avoid being tickled. Shy Chiyome watched from beside her elder sister Chiasa. In another year the older girl would begin attending Academy classes until then Tsuruko trained her. As Fukurou watched from out the corner of his eye, Chiyome tugged on her sister's dress and whispered in her ear. In response Chiasa waved for Fukurou's attention… and wriggled her fingers at the sides of her head.

"Aah…"

With a rueful smile Fukurou was gone and a green eyed black cat took his place. The girls squealed in excitement and even shy Chiyome turned shining eyes upon him, "Kitty." She whispered.

"Feh…" Their father huffed internally but did not stop preening under the attention of his daughters. It hurt when Chiyome grabbed his tail but it was worth it to see them smile and babble excitedly, lisping words of joy. He doted on them like nothing else. Moments like this reminded him of what it was he fought for.

Even in a time of war it wasn't feasible to spend too long away from directing Root's overarching concerns. Therefore, Fukurou found himself delegating responsibility for the Water Country campaign to his subordinates. Fu and Torune were excellent field commanders. Their teams had each been responsible for taking down difficult to capture positions and assassination targets. He left them in the field with a Jūninriki assigned to each of their squads.

Unfortunately they weren't even remotely a match for Mei. If Fukurou had left things up to them then he'd have had to be on top of the situation constantly lest he somehow find his agents in the permanent employ of a foreign power. He looked for a shrewd strategist to lead his people in Water Country. That person also needed to be canny enough to handle Mei's charisma and see to Konoha's interests. It was a tall order but fortunately, as part of his deal with the Hokage for authorizing the operation, he'd managed to snag two old and very trusted friends that he was sure could do the job.

So he returned home for two weeks, living in the lavish central building of the compound that had once been a utilitarian collection of sheds in the woods. He stamped after-action reviews and filed them with the Hokage. He scanned through expense reports for the various businesses legal and not, though increasingly the former. He noted idly that they were in the black. He spent time with his children and their mothers. They asked no questions about what he'd been doing, even Miho merely held him to her breast on their first night together in more than a month.

He made it up for her in the morning, midday, afternoon and late evening. He'd rarely slept that well in his life…

On his last day, he worked up the courage to look in on Chun Chu. She'd grown older, but had done so gracefully, "Hmph! Look who finally has time for little old me…"

She playfully berated him for not visiting for more than half a year and then fed him curry. Chun Chu's cooking skills had also aged gracefully, which is to say that his enjoyment of the meal was not entirely feigned. He was just setting down his fork when TenTen, Chun Chu's now thirteen-year old daughter, brought her teammate's home.

"Ehh? Ah! Fukurou-nii!" She squealed. There was a goofy-looking kid with thick eyebrows and a haircut he'd seen somewhere before behind her along with a Hyūga who seemed to smile all the time. Perhaps he was exaggerating but this Neji person was strongly reminding him of Hiko. The only difference was that this kid actually thought before he spoke.

Any awkwardness of the meeting dissolved when he showed TenTen the present that he brought her. Knowing the tastes of mother and child Fukurou had brought an exotic weapon. It was some type of bolas/meteor hammer cross, that he'd brought from Water Country. It was the only way that he could really clue in Chun Chu on what he'd been up to. She was sure to recognize the regional idiosyncrasies of the metal working and he knew that rumor at the Jounin level would take care of the rest. The former master and student held an entire conversation without saying anything, all while he showed TenTen how to properly use the weapon.

Her mother's face gave away no hint, not even to the amused looking Hyūga, of what the little things that Fukurou showed them truly meant. The weights were designed like a yo-yo and the three of them each rolled up and down a braided metal cable connected to an iron ring. Fukurou spun them about expertly in a complicated maneuver that sent the three spinning weights in different directions and then used his body, the tension in the wires and the momentum of the dull metal disks to attack a training post from multiple angles.

By the time he got around to showing TenTen the basics of using the tool, her mother knew without a doubt that the weapon's former owner had tried to kill him with the very technique that destroyed the post. Knew by the expert way that he'd used the exotic weapon that Fukurou had not only destroyed his opponent but most likely had prolonged the battle just so that he could tease out every last trick to using it out of the shinobi. It spoke of his skill that he could do such a thing, of his situation that he could find himself doing such a thing and of his nature that he likely tormented a man for no other reason but to later entertain a thirteen year old weapon otaku.

Chun Chu smiled at him, "Next time bring your girls by and don't be a stranger." She hugged him tightly, "What's important is that you come back to us hmmm? Fukurou–kun." She murmured into his ear. His eyes were slightly moist as he let his old sensei go, his composure restored by the time Neji got smacked for a comment about Tenten's mom cheating with another man. All was well. He might be a monster but he was still welcome in the home of his sensei. It meant more than he'd cared to admit.

Hiko and Shigure greeted him at the entrance to Mei's latest hideout. How pleasant, even in this war, to have these two by his side once again. His old teammates exchanged a look behind his back.

* * *

Yondaime Mizukage Yagura, stood looking at a crane as it departed through the air, a tear ran its course from the corner of his eye. Yondaime Mizukage Uchiha Madara tossed an open scroll into a bin with all the other pieces of trash. Things like requests from the Daimyo to discuss civilian casualties, pleas for amelioration from farmers and more demands from the rebels. He hissed in annoyance and draped the Kage's hat on the younger man's head as if he were an inanimate object. He plopped down in his seat and leaned it backward, carelessly setting his feet on the desk.

"Things are moving far faster than I ever anticipated. As I thought, that Fukurou is something else. I knew he was special but… Ha!" He sharply barked out a laugh.

"Not only did he kill Danzo, but he took over Root!" At that the man stood, grabbed Yagura by the chin and forced the mesmerized shinobi to face him, handling him with what would normally have been unforgivable roughness, "Do you hear that! He killed that brat Danzo and took control of Root just like I took control of this… Entire… SHITTY... COUNTRY!"

He stepped back and turned away from the unaffected Yagura. Madara took a deep breath and slowly calmed down, "I'd like to shake his hand one of these days, before I kill him. That boy has crossed me one too many times. The Uchiha…" Madara snorted, "But to come into _my country_, and mess with _**my tools**_!"

"I'm going to shake his hand," He finally decided, "Before I pluck out his eyes."

After a moment, Madara simply sat on the window sill and stared out over Hidden Mist. Finally he decided on a course of action. He'd wait a little while and maybe use his pet Sanbi to gauge how dangerous Fukurou could truly become before making a final decision. Pain was an excellent pawn, but if it was as bad as he thought it was, _"I guess I'll have to take off that little boy's shackles."_ He mused, "It was fun though, watching Nagato become the new leader of Amegakure. That crippled, talking corpse had quite a mouth on him. It was just so amusing, watching people call that pathetic sack of crap, _God... _If there's no other choice I'll feed him some chakra-meat."

He began thinking furiously, biting his lip as he thought. He moved pieces, measured outcomes, contemplated the gains versus the losses, all the while Madara kept an eye toward the future. Idly he thought, _"That boy reminds me of myself…"_

He did not realize how true that thought was.

There was a trickling sound like running water, and a faint whimper came from the man beside him, "What?" Madara growled, annoyed at having his thoughts disturbed. His eyes widened and then he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Of all the… Fine! Yes, you can use the bathroom, go change your diapers!" It was a credit to Yagura's mental fortitude, given how long that he'd been under Madara's ruthless control; that he still retained enough of his mental faculties to do even that much without step by step instructions.

As the mentally hobbled Yondaime Mizukage toddled off to his box in the corner, the real Yondaime Mizukage planned how best to use Water Country to further his plans. He felt uneasy though, he'd kill to find a better chair for his office…

* * *

**AN: Took a week to update but I got it out in the end. It's interesting reading those reviews but try to keep it civil everyone.**

**TTFN**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Uprisings, Eruptions and Explosions**

* * *

Now was the time!

He rushed forward heedless of the battle taking place all around him. The wind whipped through his hair as he dashed onward into the mist with all his might. He spared only just enough concentration to avoid any obstacle between him and his target. The light emanating from his sword was a beacon and a shield. Even in this thick, chakra laden mist the cursed light of his jutsu could be seen. And all who saw the light of his blade were frozen in mind and body for as long as they gazed upon that sight. Those who saw his technique were unaware of the passage of time for the duration of its hold on them. For most, he was but a flicker of light in the corner of the eyes that came and passed like a fleeting spectre.

He was chosen for this task because of all others, it was _his_ jutsu that was best suited to counter the powers of the sharingan. All it took was for Fukurou to give him one glance and it would be over no matter how great the man's occular prowess was. The mist parted before him and the figure that he was searching for could be seen dashing across the water with weapon bared. Hiko positioned his glowing blade before himself and imparted what chakra he had to spare to his legs for one final burst of speed.

He gritted his teeth at his opponent's last, shocked look, "Forgive me…"

Lightning crackled across his sword as the blade swept up in a deadly arc. There was a spray of blood, his heart thundered in his ears and then silence…

Fukurou screamed in anguish...

* * *

**Earlier that day**

* * *

The eastern edge of the outer city was in flames, tainting the skies with the blush of a false dawn. The residence of the Water Daimyo was a castle situated commandingly upon a natural rock outcrop that formed part of a foothill overlooking a natural harbor. The castle was in truth a small, nearly self-sufficient city with stores of several years' worth of food and an unlimited supply of fresh water. Built around it was a fortress administered by the Daimyo's own samurai retainers, men sworn to defend the castle from any and all invaders.

A city had grown up around that fortress, or rather; the small coastal village at the natural harbor near the foothills had grown to encompass the fortress. Either way it was a symbiotic relationship. The military presence and economic power of the Daimyo bolstering trade at the growing port until it became a primary transport hub for goods and people, enriching the Daimyo with taxes on everything passing through the place.

The capital city was guarded by seven shinobi garrisons. One was at the port and one guarded the sea gate, a system of chains, mines and armed barges that controlled the entrance to the harbor. A third garrison guarded any coastal approaches to the Daimyo's inner city while a fourth garrison to the north ensured that no raiders sailed inland through the closest estuary located there to become a threat to the city. The three remaining garrisons served to anchor a series of palisades around the main fortress that were now overgrown by houses. The garrisons themselves had been time and again relocated to the outer edges of the city border with its inhabitants serving as a city guard and in emergencies providing a harrying force that would delay invaders long enough to warn the Inner City of an attack.

Two of those garrisons were burning, casting an orange glow upon the early pre-dawn sky. The Daimyo himself watched through a field-glass, against the strenuous recommendation of his bodyguards, from the edge of a shuttered window. He saw the torrent of lava that flew into high into the sky as if released by a violent volcanic eruption. The lava hit an apex before falling in an unstoppable arc. A few desperate water jutsu clashed with it, but the heavy basaltic rock, still glowing red hot in some places fell inexorably upon an unseen target in the distance. From the sound of the screams and the lessening number of water and earth-type jutsu being thrown upon the flames, the southeastern Mist-shinobi garrison had just been destroyed.

The Daimyo of Water Country was a thin man with graying hair and a face etched with the worries that had aged him far beyond his years. There was little to be done for the battle now taking place. Even had he the confidence in his own forces' military prowess, there were a quarter of a million inhabitants potentially being held hostage in the crossfire of a battle he didn't think that he could win. And if he couldn't win against the forces of the Mizukage within the capital, what could he do about the rebel forces that were crushing them so handily?

Fortunately this was one difficult decision that he had an answer to. After years of anxiety and inaction, he finally could see a possible solution. Until this point no open support for the rebels had been made on his part, talks with that Terumi woman had all been held with lower ranking officials and the retainers of retainers. He hadn't dared to risk an attack from the Mizukage, not for his own life which would be forfeit, but because that sort of internal strife could not be hidden for long. The annals of history held many bloody examples of the wars that would result from the open destabilization of Water Country. At best such a thing would mean a fourth world war, at worst, the end of Water Country as a viable nation and political entity.

The Daimyo took a deep breath and for the moment managed to banish all of his worries. Casually he patted the fan in his right hand against his left shoulder three times and then shut it with an audible snap.

_There was a whisper of a sound, one that could have been the hiss of a drawn blade or the hollow tone of a night draft over the stone of the castle…_

"_**Jissen Kenbu"**_

The daimyo withheld a wince at the muted thumps coming from behind him. It was the sound of bodies hitting the floor, he imagined. Still, in turning away so as not to see the traitors being executed, he was subjected to another unpleasant sight.

For an instant he was face to face with a dead man. He swore softly as the corpse fell past the window and into the darkness of the castle grounds below. Fortunately the gloom hid the body and no alarm was raised. A trembling hand lifted the reopened fan to his lips and he held it there as if it could guard against all the evils of the world.

He could have done without seeing such ugliness up close and personal but he supposed that it was a small price to be free of the Mizukage's minders. Thankfully, by the time he turned around the dead bodies were nowhere to be seen and all that remained of the ranks of his personal guard were two loyal retainers, one of whom was daubing blood from his face having stood too close to one of his now deceased fellows. The other retainer kept up a brave front, but there was a slight wildness in his eyes as he stared at the man now standing in the center of the room that assured the daimyo that looking away had been a wise decision.

The Daimyo tapped his fan against his thin lips as he looked over the newcomer warily, "Hmm, what did you say that your name was again? Hijikata Aoshi, was it? Tell me again how you intend to deal with that monster of a Mizukage, while my samurai man the port garrisons that your people have so kindly emptied for me."

The man calling himself Hijikata Aoshi bowed with appropriate respect from one of his station to the Daimyo of Water Country. Still, the bangs that framed Aoshi's face and cast it in shadow did nothing to hide the cold blue gems that passed for eyes glinting within that hard visage. Again the daimyo found himself holding his fan before his trembling lips wondering what kind of ogre woman was Terumi Mei to have the likes of Kenbu no Aoshi, apparently the new wielder of the Raitō no Kiba; and the Devil of the Hidden Mist on her pay roll. He bet she was single.

He looked at Aoshi again._"She's definitely single…"_

* * *

**Later…**

* * *

A number of messenger birds had been sent in the direction of Kirigakure no Sato by the time that the fighting was over. Any Mist shinobi trying to find cover in the capital quickly found themselves at odds with the daimyo's forces that had poured out of the inner city. The Water Daimyo's security forces had been combed through months before by Ao's protégés, themselves former hunter nin, looking for spies and bolt holes. The bolt holes were taken care of in one fell swoop, along with any hidden weapon caches they discovered.

Realistically they must have missed some loyalist refuges but the Mizukage had few friends in the capital city. The Daimyo was not a prisoner of his military only on the technicality that the line between enforced isolation and house arrest had never been pushed. The Mizukage would learn however that Terumi Mei was in the capital. The shower of magma was her signature. The Mizukage was left with no other option than to reclaim the city from the elusive rebel leader or risk losing all legitimacy as a leader.

Of course the rebel's situation also presented a long sought after opportunity for Yagura. Both sides would be brought to a final conclusive battle over the capital of Water. The Rebels fully expected that the Mizukage would grasp the opportunity to kill Mei. It played right into their hands for a very simple reason…

In a stone bunker that served as a temporary replacement for the eastern garrison, now a hill of slag, 'Mei Terumi' looked over a scroll bearing three empty containment seals. Root agent Torune stood beside her, calmly sub-vocalizing his report into the communication seal in the back of his throat.

**Torune** :: All positions are currently being prepared for the counter attack.

**Command** :: Good, prepare yourselves Fū, Torune…

**Fū** :: We've already set up the required seals sir. I've used all lava traps so my platoon along with Torune's will be setting up traps and dummy tunnels.

**Command** :: Good work.

Three days travel from the capital, Fukurou stopped communicating as soon as he entered the rebel command center and was noticed by the true Mei Terumi with an ever wary Ao at her side.

"The attack was a success," Fukurou told them without preamble, "The capital has been taken and Daimyo-sama has thrown his support in with the rebel –excuse me, the Mist Liberation Forces."

Ao snorted and Mei commented, "How fortunate for us to be legitimized by our Daimyo." Her tone was neither elated nor sarcastic.

Ao however, spoke his feelings more openly, "Hmph! Now he has the courage to speak up, now when we've all but taken over and not when Yagura was out hunting loyal shinobi and massacring entire villages! Why in my day…"

Mei cut him off but not with her usual aura of vexation when the man began rambling about bygone eras, "It must not have been easy for our Lord to remain inactive. To oppose Yagura without proper military support and fail would have been more disastrous for our country in the long term." She did seem to believe that, although the rebel leader's tone suggested that she emphasized with Ao's sentiment more than her word's suggested. "What's important is that we're finally in a position to put an end to this madness once and for all!"

Fukurou couldn't always get a clear reading off of her but she seemed sincere. Looking over to the Daimyo's representative, a samurai general who had been slowly reddening at Ao's contemptuous denunciation of the daimyo, he found that the man looked mollified by Mei's simple but heartfelt words. He nodded to himself. This more than anything else proved how suitable a leader Mei was. To quickly and sincerely find the right words that appealed to the most people in such a positive and inspiring way. All done without scripting, the woman was certainly charismatic.

They were in the middle of a forest to the south of Kirigakure. Their position put them on the headlands overlooking one of the few estuaries that could provide the Mizukage with quick access to the to the Capital, without wasting energy trekking over the mountains that were likely areas for a guerilla ambush and had in fact been prepared in advance if such an opportunity presented itself. Fukurou had small squads of shinobi with Lava and various exploding traps positioned all through the foothills and valleys that separated Water Country into north and south.

These small four man squads were spread throughout the country aiding the locals in hampering any attemps by the Mizukage to move his forces over land, even through the numerous lakes and water ways of the main island. The Mist rebels commanded pirate fleets that did the same to forces passing through the outlying islands, a practice that had also served to maintain Water Country's isolationist posture. The only secure option left for Yagura's loyalists was to hug the coast and recapture garrison to the north of the capital by sailing upriver.

The choke point of the bay was where the now styled 'Mist Liberators' were planning to spring their final trap for Yagura and his forces, hopefully dealing a final decisive blow to the forces of the Mizukage. Of course the thing about traps was that they sometimes sprang on the ones setting them. Still, Fukurou felt confident enough in their plan to gather together six platoons for this mission a third of all Root forces on the island. As a concession to a sense of precaution one platoon would be guarding the passes through the mountains in order to hold open a line of retreat if necessary.

Of the remaining five platoons, one was set up to provide security for a mobile field hospital, one each was placed under the command of Hiko and Shigure and the last two fell under the command of Fukurou with Kensei as his lieutenant. The Mist Liberation Forces numbered at four hundred and were evenly divided among Mei, Ao, Zabuza and a flotilla of pirate ships hiding in the mist further down the coast. All that was left was for them to wait. This route was the fastest and seemingly safest path for the Mizukage to take. Either Zabuza's men would meet them as they sailed south from Kirigakure or the Mizukage had chosen an overland route, in which case the harrying forces seeded in the foothills should buy the liberators enough time to reposition.

All that remained was for them to wait. Fukurou did as his training dictated he should and sat within his command tent meditating. It would be a quiet eight hours on that cold and gloomy day. He could only imagine how much worse it must be for Shigure and her platoon situated in the swamplands south of his position at the river's mouth. Mei and Fukurou's forces were on a promontory with a commanding position over the bay. Hiko was best off, positioned with Ao who ran communications for the allied forces and would be in charge of directing reinforcements as needed.

* * *

**Off The Coast**

The troopships of the Loyalist Kirigakure forces fearlessly cut through the mists that enshrouded the waters that they sailed through. From time to time, shinobie would leap from the three leading vessels onto the water as easily as dismounting from a horse-drawn carriage. These shinobi would then race ahead of the sailing ships, fanning out into the gloom searching for threats. The boats quickly caught up with them, accelerated as they were by wind jutsu and manipulated currents. The shinobi would then leap back on and another team would take over where they left off.

It was a fine tactic for scouting ahead and well practiced but using standard tactics against rebels with the same training was a liability that Yagura's men paid in blood. As the new team of shinobi leapt off the boat, the men they were replacing suddenly morphed into eight mirror images of Momochi Zabuza who unceremoniously lopped off their heads. The attackers managed to kill three more crewmen, genin sailors, before they were quickly dispatched by the upper level shinobi on the deck. The clones fell apart, reverting to with splashes of water that washed over the deck.

Their victory was short-lived as a boyish voice called out from somewhere within the mists.

**"_Sensatsu Suishō!"_**

The water pooling on the deck of the ship and floating in the shrouds of mist collected together and froze into slender needles of ice. There were so many of them that the upper deck of the transport ship seemed to become an overgrown lawn filled with icy slivers instead of grass. There were several bodies beneath the deathly cold overgrowth as only the small wheel house and the lower decks were safe from the barrage. Those men who chose to dive over the side quickly discovered that not all of Zabuza's clones had leapt onto the boats.

Distant shouts indicated that the scene was being replicated on the three leading vessels of the fleet of six troop ships. Cries and curses flitted through the air as shadows boiled forth from below the decks of the ships. The Mist shinobi loyal to the Mizukage admirably responded to the attacks with stunning alacrity. The mist was dissipated with wind and water jutsu and swordsmen and women drew their blades and formed into combat groups surrounding the three stricken ships while signaling for reinforcements from the three trailing ships.

This time instead of Haku, a chorus of older voices both male and female cried out, **_"Hy__ō__ton: Ry__ū__ki Hy__ō__zan!"_**

There was a terrible sound, a rumbling groan of tortured hulls as the flotilla of ships suddenly ground to a halt. Men cried out in alarm as true to the technique's name, the tips of icebergs began to project themselves out of the water. The clear blue crystalline growths pinned the ships between them as they continued rising out of the sea. This carried on until the pressure and weight became too much. With a series of deafening cracks, the six troop ships ruptured, spilling men and supplies.

Most of the shinobi survived the attack, but their ships were gone. It was then that Mei Terumi stepped forth from her place atop the sea cliffs. "Truly, the power of the Yuki clan is wondrous. Yagura… you poor fool." She murmured.

With a motion akin to blowing a kiss, a hot stream of lava spewed forth from Mei's mouth and high into the air. It was identical to the attacks that had destroyed the three Mist garrisons earlier in the day, except a wave of fire swept down from the cliffs on her right, enhanced by raging torrents of wind. Zabuza's forces had been held back in favor of the clones in preparation for this intense multi-elemental attack. The massive frozen pillars of Ice sublimated into vapor at they were doused in lava and bathed in a firestorm.

With a thunderous boom that scattered men, fire, wind, water and burning earth, the final battle for control of Water Country began.

* * *

**AN: Split this into two chapters. The other will be out soon but I'm pretty busy.**

**Hy_ō__ton: Ry__ū__ki Hy__ō__zan_ = Ice Release: Iceberg Projection**

**TTFN.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Ambushes, Rebellions and Betrayals**

* * *

"_One thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven!"_

"_Hah!"_

"_One thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight!"_

"_Kiiyah!"_

A Konoha shinobi team was escorting their client through southern Fire Country.

"_One thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine!"_

"_Hoh!"_

"_Two Thousand!"_

"_Hey!"_

"_Yosh! Good work Lee!"_

"_I did it! Gai-sensei!"_

"Un_! Lee! Now that you have completed two thousand high kicks and two thousand punches in under half an hour you are just that much closer to your dream! Well done!"_

"_Gai-sensei!"_

"_Lee!"_

"_Gai-sensei!"_

"_Lee!"_

Tenten could only hang her head in embarrassment as the green clad members of her team extolled the virtues of their self-enforcing rule while posing before an imaginary sunset. She only knew what they were doing because Maito Gai himself had explained it to the team one day after Lee's sudden conversion into a virtual clone of the older man. Gai-sensei was the greatest instructor they could have had as far as training goes but he was so damn freaking weird sometimes. To everyone else including their client, Gai and Lee must have seemed crazy as hell standing in the middle of the road pointing at a bare patch of sky hollaring about the flames of youth, "I'm so sorry you had to see that Kaiza-san…" She apologized, cringing for what seemed to be the thousandth time since becoming a member of Team Gai.

For some reason their client, Kaiza seemed to be gazing at the same point in the horizon that Gai and Lee were looking at. He partially covered his eyes as if to protect them from the glare of the sun. Which was ridiculous of course, the sun was to their backs now that it was evening. Then he shook himself free of whatever manly resonance had caused him to share Gai and Lee's youthful hallucination. Looking bemused Kaiza graced the young kunoichi with an understanding smile, "That's ok, I have a son myself so I understand what it's like to horse around with your kid sometimes."

Neji, who was in the process of putting away an oversized pair of sunglasses in the wake of Gai-sensei's _Sunrise Inspirational Speech ™,_ choked at Kaiza's words and spent the next few seconds shuddering with suppressed laughter. Tenten just looked embarrassed for Lee, although a smile did tug at her lips, "Ah, Lee's not actually Gai-sensei's son…"

Before Tenten could finish speaking she was temporarily blinded by the combined reflected glare off of said sensei and student's stunning exhibition of the results of good oral hygiene. In plain speech, the evening sun bounced off two sets of big white shiny teeth and hit her in the eye.

"Gah!" Tenten cried out, rubbing at her eyes in pain.

Neji had no such problem as he'd quickly pulled on the same set of oversized shades from before. He took out another pair from his pack and silently offered them to Kaiza while Tenten could only cover her eyes with a hand. It was at this point that Gai noticed what they were doing and gasped. Neji and Kaiza were looking on with shades while Tenten was cringing with an arm shading her face.

Gai-Vision™ however, provided a different perspective. It was a rather cool, almost composed scene that the jounin saw… in his mind. The shades-wearing Neji and Kaiza stood looking on with confident detachment while Tenten, who was now styled like that new jounin, Kurenai, he thought her name was… with leg warmers and a leotard… ran a hand through her unbound hair as it was swept up in a non-existent breeze. All three and an awkward-looking Lee were silhouetted by the evening sun.

Puzzling both his genin team and client, Gai swiftly spun away from them. He covered his eyes with his forearm and began tearing up, "They were so young and now…" he intoned with a shaking fist held before him as he moaned aloud, "Look at them so… Hip!"

_Cue awkward silence…._

Kaiza chuckled good-naturedly and remarked to the genin standing next to him, "Your sensei sure is quite unique isn't he?"

Neji nodded, for once looking faintly as embarrassed as Tenten normally felt.

After travelling for a few more hours the group decided to camp out at the side of the road while there was still some daylight left. The journey to Wave from Konoha was a three hour run for a shinobi like Gai, in other words, a solid day's journey for any other ninja. With genin and a civilian in tow, their travel time was estimated at seven days on foot with generous rest stops in between. It might have been longer, but Kaiza was quite fit and kept pace with the team of shinobi without complaint.

The rest stops were used by Gai to give his students valuable field-work experience. He let them run through the motions of setting up a hidden camp, a perimeter guard, scouting for water and foraging through the surrounding flora and fauna to supplement their rations. Kaiza took full advantage of the twice daily breaks at noon and an hour prior to dusk to relax as the shinobi team worked about him. He sometimes provided tips on various fishing techniques and was kind enough not to openly laugh at the inadvertent entertainment provided by Gai and Lee when the two went overboard trying to turn barehanded fishing into a competitive sport.

At times Kaiza spoke with the genin about his home and family. It was during one such conversation that he reason for hiring Team Gai was brought up.

It started when Lee had asked Gai-sensei whether or not Wave had a shinobi village of its own. Gai had laughed at the 'youthful' question and answered in the negative, launching into a brief lecture into the reasons why Wave did not have reason to host a shinobi village. Namely the fact that the ocean separated the island from its neighbors and the lack of an economy capable of sustaining a village were cited by the jounin as reasons for which they should not encounter any foreign shinobi on their mission.

Kaiza politely interrupted Gai at that point, "Actually," He said, "You will be seeing shinobi from other villages in Wave Country, although there shouldn't be any fighting involved."

Taking Gai's sharp look as encouragement, the man quickly began to explain, "You may know of Tengu Shipping and Hauling, it's a company that has became a major economic force in Wave Country after they executed a hostile takeover of Gato Shipping Industries," The man subtly stressed the word 'hostile' with a slight grin as if remembering a particularly pleasant, for him at least, memory. "Since then, they've been involved in a number of industrial projects throughout Wave Country and have been hiring ninja to provide security, usually shinobi from either the Hidden Mist or Leaf."

Gai blinked at the new information.

"The Tengu Company has also bought into my father-in-law's effort to build a truss bridge between Wave and the Mainland. They expanded the project so that we wound up making two parallel bridges instead of one. They wanted to build a bridge to handle public traffic and the other one for use by their overland hauling department, free of tax." The man shrugged, "It's pretty smart, Gato… the late owner of Gato Shipping was more interested in turning Wave Country into his private fiefdom than expanding his business. We needed the money for the project and couldn't refuse the offer without putting the country in debt."

Kaiza tossed a stick of wood into the sunken fire and continued his story, "You see Gato was a real piece of work. Most of his business was in illegal smuggling so the last thing that he wanted was a bridge going up that would cut into his profits by making it easier for inspectors and rival traders to access the island. Even after he… uh, passed away, we've still been having trouble."

At this point Lee raised a question that they'd all been wondering, "Um, Kaiza-san, how did Gato die?"

Without batting an eye their client smoothly answered them by saying, "Oh, he slipped in the bathroom one day and stabbed himself twenty-two times when he fell. It was quite tragic." Kaiza's tone indicated that 'tragic' was possibly the one word that was furthest from the way that anybody living in Wave felt about Gato's demise. That perhaps singing, street parties and burning effigies had been involved.

It was a sentiment that was only reinforced as the man continued speaking as if the improbable explanation didn't matter or was actually the official explanation. "The man hired several mercenary groups to provide warehouse security. They were little more than hired thugs and gangsters taking advantage of the situation. The shinobi that the Tengu Company hired have spent the last two years clearing them out of the island. They even found a slave ring and a number of drug running operations in the more remote parts of the Island."

For a moment Kaiza was so silent in his memories that the curious genin were actually hesitant to disturb him but as he roused, Tenten again raised a question that was bothering her.

"Kaiza-san," She asked while the others looked on, "If Tengu Corporation is already hiring leaf shinobi for security then why hire us to protect you?"

Kaiza looked up and blinked as he processed the question. Brushing aside old memories as he answered her, the man told them his reasoning, "Tengu Shipping and Hauling is a private company and mainly provides security to protect their interests. There's less red tape involved in fielding such a force in a country like Wave for the purpose of hunting bandits. The other pier of the bridge is within Fire Country where the company has less authority to handle matters…"

Gai spoke up, realizing where Kaiza's explanation was leading them, "So you hired Konoha ninja to handle any bandits that hid on the Fire Country border that might attack the bridge builders." The man nodded slowly, "It is certainly a faster method of ensuring security while petitioning the Fire Daimyo to have the area policed." The jounin quirked a brow though as he considered something, "But why didn't the company hire Konoha directly for this mission if they're already hiring our shinobi in Wave Country?"

"Ah," Kaiza replied, "Well, they did offer of course…" At this point it didn't take someone like Neji to point out that Kaiza seemed to be remembering a particularly traumatic experience. Gai's gaze sharpened but he otherwise said nothing, "The thing is, even though they're nothing at all like Gato, people remember what it was like. I was one of the most vocal activists against the things that Gato Shipping was doing in Wave." Kaiza absently rubbed his elbows as he spoke, "I… and the other men working on the Fire Country piers would feel more comfortable if we knew that the ninja we hired were working for us and not some company whose interests may or may not match our own."

The rest of the night was spent in silent contemplation while Team Gai wondered just what had happened in Wave to make Kaiza look at his arms as if afraid they would be torn off.

* * *

The final battle for Water Country began with a thunderous boom that scattered fire, wind, water and burning earth across the sea. The ever present mists that shrouded the coast were banished. Searing hot steam took their place , rushing outward and up the cliffs, a diffuse burst of wind corralled the superhot vapor away from the allied contingent of rebels-turned liberators and their Root shinobi associates. The Ao and the aide standing next to Fukurou gave their assessment simultaneously.

"Twelve enemy platoons are down Mei-sama." Ao quietly noted to his redheaded leader.

"One hundred and fifty dead, fifty-five critically wounded and a further one hundred shinobi still capable of battle." Baku, a Main Branch Hyuuga twice Fukurou's age spoke into his leader's ear.

"Most of them survived by diving deep," Ao informed Mei, "An over strength platoon is making a break for the cliffs to the north…"

"-Twenty-four individuals, four jounin-level chakra signatures…" called out Baku

"The rest are making for the swamps to the south," Ao observed, he had to be careful with that Hyuuga the Uchiha kid brought with him, it was throwing him off his game a little wondering if their allies were planning on making a try for the prize byakugan implanted in his right eye-socket. The chaos of the upcoming battle would be an opportune moment.

"Zabuza is engaging alongside the Yuki clansmen with Toguro-dono at the head. Some are slipping through, Shigure-dono is positioning to ambush them when they come ashore, Hiko-dono is moving up to support Zabuza." Baku currently had little interest in Ao's eye though he would have gleefully plucked it from the man's skull if given the chance. His purpose here was to keep an eye on their enemies as well as their allies. With the leader of Root in attendance and a major investment of their standing forces in Water Country it would be disastrous for them to be stabbed in the back. Also Fukurou wanted to keep his allies 'honest' by having both byakugan users watch each other's side for deceit.

"Mei, Fukurou-san is sending off a platoon to deal with the enemy to the north of us." Ao told his leader, as he watched Kensei split off with sixteen other shinobi.

The woman hummed as she watched the battle progress below with narrowed eyes. Every now and again a kunai or jutsu would make its way toward the cliff. They were never in danger but it paid to remain alert. "Have two teams assist, place Mukuro-kun in charge." She ordered.

Baku noted the departed men at the same time that a geyser erupted in the middle of the bay. After a few moments of focused searching he commented, "No sign of the Mizukage's chakra signature or the Sanbi."

Fukurou nodded, "We'll just have to see if this draws them out then…"

He clasped his hands as if in prayer and eight dots of light coalesced around his wrists. In a smooth movement, he held his hands outward in a modified Yamanaka seal. The first four fingers of his right hand were placed before those of his left. He held his arms up, palms out with his joined thumbs forming the bottom of a diamond-shaped window that he looked through. The eight spheres of light darted forward.

_**"Gyōton: Kongō no Tennyo Hamaya"**_

Fukurou softly intoned.

'_What is that chakra?'_Ao was startled by the upsurge of energy he detected coming from nearby and was very nearly blinded when he turned his byakugan on Fukurou.

"M-Mei!" He grunted, afraid that they were being attacked by the Root shinobi.

"Calm down Ao…" The Mist Rebel Leader breathed as she watched what was happening with awe and more than a little trepidation.

The only reason that she could tell what was happening was because the technique was so bright it left a glowing after image in her retinas. Even so, it took several seconds to connect the fresh chorus of screams to the new technique on the battlefield. She was standing on the top of a cliff, one hundred meters away from the action and the eight arrows of light raced across her field of vision so quickly they were little more than a line tracing over the surface of the ocean. She imagined that it must have been even worse for the men on the field who didn't have the advantage of watching the looping shards of glowing death.

She was all too right. Zabuza was in the midst of cutting the arms off of his current opponent when another shinobi struck from his blind spot just as he was already committed to the strike. Before Zabuza could let go of his blade in order to dodge, or before Haku could spear the offending ninja with a javelin of ice, a glowing bolt of light struck the loyalist-nin in his back and blew its way out through the dead shinobi's chest. The eight lights were visible through the mist as they killed the Mizukage's soldiers. Some thought to dodge or block the attacks when they came close. These efforts were largely futile.

Guided with the unerring accuracy of the sharingan, the arrows weaved through the throngs of fighting men and women. Without even singing an ally, the missiles were all able to accurately track and kill any dodging shinobi that didn't immediately dive underwater and stay there. The numerous defensive water techniques did nothing to slow the attacks although a water and lightning attack that got in the way of one missile caused it to veer off course for a while. After a few more seconds of carnage Fukurou glanced at Baku who shook his head in the negative.

'_So you're not here eh?'_ The Root leader thought with a frown, _'CH-! This makes things difficult…'_

Waving his hands like a conductor, the eight glowing hamaya soared straight upward before turning over and plunging back down toward and into the watery depths of the sea.

A Mist-loyalist shinobi was treating a wounded ally when a luminous rod of energy transfixed her patient, at the same time seven other glowing lights were heading toward the greatest concentrations of loyalist shinobi hiding under water. The medic was just beginning to swim away when the lights intensified.

_**"Katsu!"**_ Fukurou commanded.

Eight explosions went off deep under water. The resultant geysers rained more than just water upon the surface combatants.

Fukurou's sharp eyes caught something in the distance, "Baku!"

His subordinate was already looking into the distance, "They're ours!" He called out as a trio of ships bearing rebel colors sailed into the bay.

"Let's wrap this up!" Fukurou commanded as he waved his platoon forward over the edge of the cliff.

"Ao! We're moving!" Mei commanded as her counterpart signaled for an attack.

The appearance of the ships was a hit to the morale of the Mist Loyalists. That is, until the central ship exploded in to a mass of shattered bodies and timbers. Already descending into the battlefield the command group was treated to the sight of Yagura in Three-Tails Bijuu-mode arising from the sea before a thick roiling fog engulfed everything.

_Now was the time!_

**Hiko**

He rushed forward heedless of the battle that was still taking place all around him. The wind whipped through his hair as he dashed onward into the mist with all his might. He spared only just enough concentration to avoid any obstacle between him and his target. The light emanating from his sword was a beacon and a shield. Even in this thick, chakra laden mist the cursed light of his jutsu could be seen.

And all who saw the light of his blade were frozen in mind and body for as long as they gazed upon that sight. The lightning chakra radiated by the blade was granted extended range by the chakra-laden mist. All who saw his technique were unaware of the passage of time for the duration of the technique's hold on them. For most, he was but a flicker of light in the corner of the eyes that came and passed like a fleeting spectre.

He was chosen for this task because of all others, it was _his_ jutsu that was best suited to counter the powers of the sharingan. All it took was for Fukurou to give him one glance and it would be over no matter how great the man's ocular prowess was. The mist parted before him and the figure that he was searching for could be seen dashing across the water with weapon bared. Hiko positioned his glowing blade before himself and imparted what chakra he had to spare to his legs for one final burst of speed.

**Fukurou**

In spite of his best efforts the hallucinogenic properties of the Sanbi's mist took hold of him. Insidious it struck at his weakest points, the many losses that he suffered and still grieved for even after being reincarnated. They clutched at him, hinds rising up from the water. Confused, he belted Baku across his face sending the man skipping across the water like an artfully tossed river stone.

"You kiLlEd Us…" They whispered.

"SaVe Us!" More hands arose as the voices of the dead cried out to him.

"MaStEr!" He sweated as his iron will began to struggle against the truly demonic illusion.

Fukurou stilled himself, closed his eyes and exhaled. He didn't need them to know who the boy standing before him was. Always it came back to this first death, the one that taught him what it truly meant to see someone die, a tragic senseless thing.

"-_Hissss-_ KiLL tHe spArEEe!"

He opened his eyes, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

Green eyes turned red and black as his sharingan activated, "Goodbye." He broke the illusion.

For the first time in his new life, he doubted his eyes.

Then the Sanbi struck and he could only scream.

Buried deep within Fukurou, something began to awaken…

**Shigure**

She lived as she had been taught. Carefully, sparingly…

She loved as she had wished, with all her heart and soul.

It was her only weakness…

The one she loved betrayed her…

Sealed her…

Commanded her to betray their friend…

Why couldn't he see through the elder's lies? To her ordered mind it was obvious that Koharu was holding something back. Hiko was being a fool as always, jealous of Fukurou as he had always been. It was a sentiment that had always been carefully hidden from even the vaunted eyes of her other teammate. Or perhaps not. Perhaps Fukurou knew and believed that it would pass. It was just like him to be so understanding and patient, just as it was like Hiko to be a reckless fool. Just as it was like her to love that fool with all her heart. Not once did she think that Hiko would ever turn against her -against them… their bond… her love…

Koharu was clever. In the end, Hiko was the only one who could have gotten close enough to plant the loyalty seal on her. He did it with a kiss too, the bastard… Still, she couldn't bring herself to hate Hiko. Not even now, as her sword arced toward Fukurou's neck. Not even as Hiko's ninjatō plunged into her side as her lover accepted the fatal strike in exchange for freezing her body as still as stone with the remnants of his jutsu. Blood dripped from his lips as he kissed her. The blade in her innards, having been deliberately angled to avoid any vital areas, was less of an agony than the feeling of betrayal that was let loose by the loyalty seal's dissipation.

A roar of fury became more of a weak mewl as it struggled past their still joined lips. Her sword had wounded him much more severely though. His strength was already sapped and the chakra in his blade nearly gone. She would have thrown him off of her had she not been so stunned. There was just so much blood. The blood of the man she loved and at that moment, so wanted to hate was on her hands. Her face cycled through a multitude of expressions before settling on appalled shock.

Hiko gritted his teeth, "Forgive me…" He rasped.

Then the Sanbi struck as Fukurou looked on from where he'd been pushed aside. Helplessly he watched as his two most precious friends were obliterated before his eyes.

And then he screamed.

* * *

**In the World that was a Womb**

It was fury that called it into existence, the desire for vengeance. It was a deadly primal thing that hated and destroyed. And being an entity of pure destruction, it in turn sought to be destroyed, eventually causing its host's self-destruction. It arose within him in a maddened thing, howling in fury only to be swallowed whole by an even greater darkness residing within the Yin of its host. The entity the Uchiha called Susanoō did not even have a chance to feed on Fukurou's rage or play with his guilt before oblivion claimed it. There was only enough time to let out a single outraged cry that echoed throughout the fiber of of the young Uchiha's being.

Even in the throes of emotional turmoil there were some vestiges of the state of nirvana granted by Harry Potter's death that stayed with him. Fukurou was in this way fundamentally different from any other Uchiha that had ever called upon Susanoō. He felt grief, yes, rage too but there had always been something missing. He didn't hate as other's did, not even when two of his very first friends were taken away.

He recognized that what Yagura was doing was wrong. That he needed to be stopped. But he didn't mourn the deaths of his friends any more than he did the deaths of the Uchiha killed five years ago. The dead passed on to the next great adventure. Mourning that was absolutely pointless. He felt guilt though, crushing guilt that they had passed before their time and it had been because of a mistake Fukurou had made. Obviously they had died protecting him…

But he didn't mourn them at all. It wasn't a human response so for a lack of one Fukurou screamed in anguish as he was swept away by the waves driven by the Sanbi's attack.

Deeper still, within the world that was a womb and the womb that was a world, something stirred in response the Susanoō's death-cry. Eyes opened at the sound of a second cry. It sensed a power seeped in malice and struck out.

Within the real world the Sanbi's head was bifurcated. The chakra that had constituted it was disrupted and a cut was opened up nearly all the way to the center of its shell. The edges were wreathed in an invisible flame, visible only at the edges as the world was distorted like the wavering of air above a true fire.

For a second everyone paused at the sight. Yagura, free at last from the shackles that had chained his mind was a defeated broken thing. Blind and dumb, he bawled like a babe seeking its mother's breast and the Mist Rebels, seeing only a monster temporarily exposed, interpreted his helpless cries as howls of fury. Only Ao felt something off about the way Yagura had been. In the end, when Mei burned him down, it was an act of unknowing mercy.

* * *

**AN: Two weeks is not nearly long enough to say that I've abandoned a story. _I_ say when I've abandoned a story or not. As it is, I write when I have the time.**

**Jutsu:-**

**Gyōton: Kongō no Tennyo Hamaya - Dawn Release: Demon Breaking Arrow Heaven's Gift of Vajra**

**Explanation**

**A modified version of the Kongō-ya, which is basically a Kongō no Ken that's treated like a thrown grenade. This is more developed, the lightning nature and a bit of Ying-Yang allows it to be moved about like a tracking missile. With a powerful enough lightning attack it might be possible to disrupt the technique enough to either make it veer off course or detonate prematurely by affecting the magnetic field. Its strength lies in its speed and the power of the ****Gyōton.** The tracking ability is possible only due to Fukurou's Sharingan. 

**Shinran Kagami Juin no Jutsu - Mind and Mirror Disruption Curse Technique**

**Explanation**

**Hiko bounces Shinranshin off of a reflective surface, originally used with a mirror. Hiko uses this technique with his sword to freeze his opponents for a split second while in combat, usually to deadly effect. Range of 0-30 meters.**

**Raiton: ****Shinran Kagami Juin no Jutsu - Lightning Release: Mind and Mirror Disruption Curse Technique**

**Explanation**

**The perfected version of the technique he recreated as a genin, it uses lightning chakra to not only aid in disrupting the nervous signals between brain and body but temporarily disrupt brain activity resulting in a form of short-term memory loss. Not only is the range greatly increased, when streamed through the a conductive medium like the water droplets in the mist, it's effects are amplified. Range 0-300 meters. **

**TTFN.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Victories, Betrayals and Nightmares**

* * *

_Koharu and Homura met for tea. Homura planted a seal on the floor as he sat down, not entirely feigning the groan that ground out as he bent his knees. For a time the two drank in silence, "It is done." Koharu stated._

_"Oh, he took the bait?" Homura asked surprised._

_Koharu nodded, "For all that he is, he can still be outsmarted."_

_They were careful not to use any names._

_"How did you convince them of what needed to be done?" Mitokado queried._

_"A slight reworking of past events and evidence, Sarutobi left the job of covering things up to us after all." Koharu told him. She faltered slightly before continuing, "And a loyalty enforcing curse seal on one."_

_"How cruel, to be slain by they who he trusted in ..." Homura stated._

_"Yet, as sad as it is, such cruelty is just the nature of our world of shinobi." Koharu finished the old proverb._

_For Konoha..._

**_An old grey cat opened its eyes from where it rested in the rafters. Lying still in the shadows above the conversing shinobi, it seemed to listen intently._**

* * *

**Water Country**

The fiery defeat of the Mizukage was a shocking game changer. The battle ended with the surrender of the demoralized loyalists who survived the battle. It was yet to be seen whether or not there were any of Yagura's supporters willing and able to continue the purges in his stead. With the rebel's recent victory and the Daimyo's support it was unlikely that things would continue on sheer inertia alone.

By Ao's estimation the likely course of events would be for a delegation to open negotiations with whoever took control in Kirigakure. In the meanwhile the Liberation Forces would be working to consolidate their hold on the country during the window of opportunity that this victory afforded. Thinking of windows of opportunity Ao's mind turned to the question of their allies. What to do with them to be precise.

According to the old dogma taught to Ao, the ending days of a conflict was the perfect time for a betrayal. Making allies was nice but they were all in competition for resources. Old wisdom was that a shinobi should take the chance to strike at a strong competitor when his or her guard was down and their aid was no longer vitally needed. The security threat that Root presented was balanced against the chance that they might be needed in the event of the Kirigakure Loyalists deciding upon a last stand or guerilla warfare.

Ao was quite certain that Mei would not approve of betraying their allies. She perhaps hoped to parlay their connection with the black ops group into a more open alliance with Konoha and the Land of Fire. It would greatly help to restore the damage done to Water Country's economy, having a trade and military treaty potentially worth millions of ryo. Establishing such a treaty would also mitigate the problem of Konoha having too accurate a picture of Kirigakure's state of affairs. As shinobi it was mortifying to let such information out of their hands but it was better have an ally with such knowledge than an enemy.

With this in mind Ao approached the group of Root soldiers that had quickly surrounded and taken custody of their leader. He had collapsed after striking the Sanbi down with some mysterious jutsu. Ao wished that he could use his byakugan to assess Fukurou's state but from the wary stance of the man's well armed bodyguards he feared that such an action would be seen as provocative. The squad members assigned to Ao as support tensed slightly as they approached the ring of black cloaked AnBu bristling with naked weaponry.

It was a sensible response all considering. Root had come to earn a healthy respect from the rebels turned liberators as soldiers, assassins, saboteurs and general all round dealers of death. The men congregated around Fukurou looked akin to a disturbed hive of ants as their leader was treated. A healer, only distinguished from the other Root shinobi by the visible green glow of a medical ninjutsu of some sort, worked on Fukurou as he sat on a rock.

Seeing Ao approach, the Root commander waved away the medic peremptorily and stood. Rather than argue as Ao would have expected, the healer stood aside. His own medics were more concerned with healing a patient rather following the orders of a commanding officer who didn't know what was good for him. This medic instead acquiesced, let the patient stand and adroitly took up a guard position, drawing a set of steel darts from a fold in their sleeves. He or she quickly became another cloaked figure in the intimidating wall of death that surrounded Fukurou.

Right... AnBu medic...

Any notions Ao had of mounting a surprise attack on an unprepared ally perished as Fukurou stood to greet him. He was now much more concerned about surviving should Fukurou have at some point shared the same thoughts of betrayal as he. Given that the young man led a group initially founded by Shimura Danzo, the so called 'Darkness of Shinobi' Ao found that possibility to be quite high. Nervous, he struggled to find the way to divine the Root commander's future intentions.

Having expected Fukurou to be either unconscious or greatly weakened given his collapse, Ao was greatly discomfited to find the Uchiha standing there staring him down. It was easier this way to accept that this man before him, barely more than a teen, had struck down a Bijū of all things possible. Ao found himself quickly reassessing his plan of action. Confronting Fukurou with only a squad for protection against a half-platoon of professional killers was a bad idea.

The Uchiha's brow twitched in inquiry as Ao swallowed thickly and forced down the urge to wipe his sweat covered brow. There was no killing intent from the man his green eyes were flat and emotionless. Ao felt like he was talking to a corpse as he stumbled over his own words, unnerved.

"W-well, I wanted to know i-if you-your men needed medical attention."

Fukurou's eyes never wavered from Ao's own as he wordlessly shook his head in the negative.

Ao, heavily sweating, struggled not to seem hasty as he backed away, "R-right… Mei-sama wants to meet in the morning for an after action report."

Ao was well on his way back to Mei's camp when one of his subordinate's, a man named Ikkaku, hesitantly questioned him on his frazzled mood.

"Sir? Are you all right?" the chunin asked him.

But Ao ignored the query, choosing instead to mutter to himself, "Not human… not human…"

* * *

**Root Base Camp**

Back at the Root Camp, the Special Forces group were gearing up and preparing to leave with their wounded for a more secure location for the night. The medic that Ao had taken note of was already in their secret hideaway. It was a swamp that was a mere day's travel from Kirigakure. In her well equipped medical station there was but a single patient for Root shinobi medic, Kana. As she stood inside the private hospital tent Fukurou laid a body down in a dry field cot.

After doing so, the medic cut the controls animating the corpse doll. 'Fukurou' tumbled to the floor and rested there until Kana resealed it. Tiredly she removed her mask and revealed a face bearing a single sharingan eye bounded by seals intended to control the flow of energy through it. It was through the gift of the sharingan from her leader that the medic was able to so quickly produce a convincing body double from the corpse of a former comrade, felled in the recent battle. Even in death the deceased Root agent served a greater purpose.

On the medical cot lay her leader and master, Fukurou. The teen lay insensate and seemingly helpless as Kana treated him for mild chakra exhaustion and some sort of weird physical strain that affected all areas of his body equally. It was as though he had been subjected to a tremendous amount of pressure. She figured that it must have been a result of whatever technique her master had used to strike at the Sanbi near the end of the battle. His condition wasn't critical, but as former subordinates of Danzo, Kana and her ilk knew all too well the possible consequences of showing weakness under those circumstances.

Leaving Hyūga Hizashi, code-named Baku, in charge of overseeing their troops in Water Country as a whole while Kensei commanded the Root Leader's personal guard in Kana's stead. Kana herself was focused on healing the damage to Fukurou's body. As ever, she performed her task thoroughly and with great efficiency. With the aid of some pain relievers and a shot of steroids he would be up and running by the following morning, if only a little sore. Despite once having been in a similar position in the past, there was no danger to Fukurou as she passed her hands over his head. Successfully treating Fukurou and then setting guard over her patient for a sleepless night of observation. In a strange way, when Kana did so, it was with a feeling that was as close to satisfaction as she ever came.

It was perhaps a pity that she could not help Fukurou with his nightmares. Or heal his aching heart. The emotionally stunted woman wouldn't have known where to even begin, had Fukurou displayed any unconscious signs of his distress. It was probably for the best though, as messed up as it was watching his oldest friends die before him, Danzo's 'prize' students were a whole other dimension of psychological issues. At best Kana might have tried to offer Fukurou her body to use for stress relief and remedial psycho-sexual warfare training.

Fortunately the night was spent in uneasy dreaming for the erstwhile Root commander, impassively watched over by a completely loyal; and utterly amoral killer…

* * *

**Fukurou's Dream**

_It was a nightmare that had haunted him in one form or another. A memory of a death he could not stop although he dearly wished to. Even in his dreams he was powerless to prevent what happened. It was night but the location wasn't a graveyard or an all too quite village compound. He was running up a flight of stairs. Running up the side of a hill trying to reach the shrine located at the top._

_The shrine that overlooked a village…_

_The village that had been slaughtered down to the last man woman and child…_

_Perhaps he was wrong; perhaps some of the villagers too refuge up there. If they did his help would be needed._

_No. This wasn't how it had happened. He wasn't that frail boy rushing headlong into disaster anymore. There had been an advance squad sent ahead and he had only made the trip later with a detachment of guards. As he thought this his eyes traveled from the top of the staircase that he was climbing to view the fearsome shadows flitting about him._

_As __if __summoned__ by __his __attention,__ one __of __the __shadows __peeled __off __from __the __tree-__line,__ trailing __an__ afterimage __of __gleaming __silver. __His __hand __went __up__ and__ stopped __the __blade__ before __it__ could __penetrate __his__ chest. __Even __in __his __dream__ this __nearly __impossible__ feat__ was__ molded__ by __his__ experience.__ The__ blade __was__ grasped__ by__ the__ flat__ sides__ and__ his__ hands __were__ covered__ in__ lightning.__ A __wrench__ to__ the__ side__ snapped__ the__ blade__ and __ripped__ the__ hilt __from__ his__ assailant__'__s__ grip.__ The__ flashing__ light__ illuminated__ the__ face__ of__ his __attacker._

"_Shigure?"_

'_Squelch!'_

_Blood dribbled from his shocked lips as a second blade sank into his chest, piercing his heart and lung from between his ribs_

_Sweet Agony!_

_From moment to moment he spun until at last coming to the top of the stairs. The wound his chest was gone. There was only a bone weary ache that penetrated the entirety of his being. He… did not wish to go on but the nightmare drove him forward. Despair snapped at his heels as the gloomy shrine loomed before him. With great apprehension he crossed the courtyard and mounted the steps. The sliding door was ajar and he could smell the effluent and blood even before a break in the clouds let pale red moonlight shine forth._

_A man and child lay together in pools of blood._

_He wailed then as he had wanted to the first time he had seen the nameless child slumped beside the dead Seven Swordsman of the Mist. Those utter bastards were killing children! What could a seven year old child have done to deserve such a fate! He cursed the world that would allow such a travesty, the Daimyo and lords who sat impotently as this travesty unfolded. He cursed the system of ninja that held no rules or laws of war that could not be broken at the whim of a ruler without international outcry._

_He cursed himself for his helplessness._

_He needed power._

_More Power!_

_He felt something, a great presence that drifted past him like a leviathan of the deep but when he spun around there was only Hiko looking on with a neutral expression._

"_Why did you have to die?" Fukurou cried out._

"_Why__ do__ you __care?__" __Was __the__ question__ Hiko__ posed__ in__ reply__ to __him,__ his __head __tilted__ like __a__ curious__ bird__'__s._

"_You were my friend!" Fukurou passionately responded._

"_But I hated you…" Hiko, sadly replied, "I was jealous of every step you took forward while I seemed to stand still. You and Shigure were so far away and I couldn't keep up."_

"_I-I…" The Uchiha stuttered._

"_You always knew how I felt. You Uchiha understand hatred all too well," Hiko told him, "But you ignored it, let things pass. I hated you, my friend. I didn't trust in you at all. I was surprised that you would feel sad for such a wretched child…"_

_Fukurou turned his head away and the next words were from a memory of the time they spoke of the village's massacre._

"_Fukurou__… __you __really __wanted __to __help__ that __village__ huh?__" __Hiko __had__ asked __him __after __seeing __his __sadness._

_..._

"_Fukurou, why are we even here in this messed up place?" Hiko had asked as Fukurou personally incinerated Ranmaru's corpse and scattered the ashes._

_... _

"…" _Hiko watched in silence as Fukurou oversaw the feeding of orphans too young to be shipped out of the country. The way that Fukurou held a grinning child as if one of his daughters and smiled in contentment._

"_Fukurou… you're not a bad guy at all…"_

_..._

_Shigure as always had been silent, keeping her own counsel beside her lover and teammate._

**And so Fukurou dreamed…**

* * *

**Taizōkai**

In Taizōkai, the world that was a womb and the womb that was a world there sat a luminous king in judgment over a mortal soul...

Fukurou's hopes, his dreams, even his darkest desires were all laid bare and tested in a string of nightmares.

The summoned being contemplated the mortal who had called to him and whose call had been answered by Him. This was not _the_ Child of Prophecy but still… _a_ Child of Prophecy. Hate called to Hate, Love called to Love. Darkness and Death…

The heavens were changing as the wheel of fate turned. Another chamber within the great Mandala was open. The time of Gods, Demons and Men was approaching. Fukurou's part in the great design was clear. He would fight or he would die and by his own actions and the actions of those like him, decide the fate of the world. The Age of Gods would come. The Age of Men would end. Or the Age of Demons would return once again and with it, death, destruction and chaos without end…

In truth, there was only one possible decision in the end for this being. An entity known as, **He Who Battles Demons**…

* * *

**AN. Woo it's been a while, free time is hard to find and motivation even harder when you're tired. The site's editor occasionally spits out some confusing mistakes, deleting words, run together sentences and the like. As I edit this story on my own I sometimes miss things and have the re-read in detail five or six times. The twist in the Manga won't really affect the story most likely but it'll b interesting to see if I can use it. As always I do welcome advice on how to improve this story and interesting reviews are always a good motivation to write. TTFN. **


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, Harry Potter is the work of author J.K. Rowling. The author makes no claim to ownership of the aforementioned works and no profit from this fanfiction. **

* * *

**Uchiha Fukurou**

**Of Funerals, Nightmares and Muzzled Dogs**

* * *

The funeral was held on a warm summer's day, the air carried strains of birdsong and reed grass seedlings floated overhead. It was a quiet affair, held by the clans involved. The only outsiders in attendance were the Hokage and Chun Chu now fully retired and working at her family's smithy. There was no memorial for a battle that didn't officially happen. Mist still needed time to stabilize so secrecy was the status quo even though the other great villages; Suna, Kumo and Iwa most definitely knew that _something_ had happened.

If anyone believed the Aburame to be unexpressive, they would be wrong as nothing could be further from the truth. The same could be said of the Yamanaka. Informing the parents of his former teammates that their children were dead was mentally taxing to put things lightly. In both cases the stoic forms paying their respects next to him had unabashedly broken down in tears at the news.

Unfortunately his men had only been able to recover Shigure's remains of the two, what little there was left, and that was only due to Fukurou himself returning to the battlefield to personally assist them, having gained assistants of his own.

The remnants of Shigure's colony had sought him out and for a moment he had dared hope that against all odds...

The clay pot bearing her ashes and another container crawling with a pair of young, badly stressed queens and a handful of survivors of the Aburame kunoichi's hive were presented to the family. His knowledge of their customs paid off in that while Shigure's parents had been hit just as hard as Hiko's by their loss, theirs was also a bittersweet moment. The special breed of camouflaged assassin Kikai Mushi that Shigure nurtured was adopted by the girl's parents, thus allowing them to keep some last part of their daughter alive.

The time for grieving had come and gone. The shinobi now paid their respects to the fallen, the acknowledged fallen that is…

There were a few more names on the Hero's Memorial and a handful of quiet but public funerals. In utter secrecy Ne members gathered. It wasn't a full accounting but enough for the task at hand. A line of coffins for a funeral attended by only those faceless shadows who would one day take the place of the deceased that lay before them. The count was thirty-one dead, including the one platoon on the ship that had been destroyed by the Sanbi. The rest had perished in either that same battle or in the preceding acts of guerrilla warfare. He'd need to designate another Sharingan-Bearer soon but that could all wait.

Finally, Chun Chu turned to him, after the others had left. She smiled softly and kissed his cheek like he was a kid again. By this point she was the only one other than his kids or their mothers who could get away with doing that. He met her eyes as she sized him up.

"Looks like it's just us then…" She said. The word 'R_emaining'_ went unsaid but settled heavily about them.

More quietly now, she whispered her question, "Will you be all right?"

His sharp eyes picked out their names on the memorial stone even as the days shadows grew long and the air heavy with the promise of summer. "I kept hoping that this was all a bad dream." He told her, "That I'm in an illusion that's going to break any second." Ridiculous of course, the Sanbi's mist had only affected him due to the biochemical aspect to it, and he'd defeated even that.

He watched how the evening light filtered through the trees, the motion of the leaves, the pattern on a slowly fluttering of a butterfly's wings… a kilometer and a half away… And he started at the realization that the surge of emotion within him had activated his sharingan against his will. Reigning himself in he closed his eyes and from a distant memory found his answer.

"It does one no good to dwell on dreams and forget to live." He told her, his green eyes staring into her own. He let her take his measure and once again he received that peculiar smile she first gave him as a gennin. It seemed that they still thought alike. With a promise to keep in touch, they parted.

* * *

This meeting could have been better scheduled but it was important. The fact that Baku or, Hyuuga Hizashi had been a double agent for the Hokage was expected, as was the Honorable Advisors' current ploy.

**"I command Ne."** He spoke in a tone that brooked no opposition and held not even a hint of hesitation or weakness.

"You answer to the Hokage!" Koharu replied evenly in a tone that held a hint of... accusation.

He ignored her and the other one, Homura, choosing only to acknowledge the man directly across from him and the one to the left, "What you request of me is impossible as currently worded."

Well, there was little wonder as to why they were trying this or who had put this farce in motion given its execution. They wanted to replace him as commander of Ne. Originally perhaps the advisors had hoped for another rendition of the old status quo. The Uchiha runs the white elephant that was the Konoha Police Force and their opponents in the regime neuter them politically behind the scenes. Honored but not trusted. Held closely but watched equally as closely.

Then he went and built himself an army.

He panned his eyes over the two in the corner. He did it so quickly that to another it would have seemed an involuntary twitch. The brief look was more than enough for his eyes. They were hiding it well but he could tell the Advisors were nervous. Unfortunately neither of the two had enough in common with him for even the briefest of legilimency probes and using the sharingan in this office under the current conditions was asking for a fight. So he was left with the impression that there was something about this situation that had them extremely nervous in his presence but no idea as to why.

Returning his attention to the Hokage he shoved the puzzle into the back of his mind. "I _can_," He stressed, "Transfer the requested personnel to Jounin Nara Shikaku's command. I _can_ make available the relevant files relating to these individuals and their mission histories."

That added up to a little less than three hundred shinobi of chunin to jounin level ability minus the Jūninriki. It was the entirety of the force that Baku had compromised to the Hokage.

On Fukurou's own command…

"I _can_ offer the training and materials to make up for the apparent gap in skill between the current crop of ANBU and my own operators. As a loyal shinobi of Konoha I can do this and more…"

The hag interrupted him but he talked over her. "I can do this because **_I_ _command Ne_**."

The jounin, Shikaku seemed to get what he was saying and the Hokage too. The Advisers seemed bent on mulishly continuing the argument but that was all right as anything further from them was inconsequential. Fukurou's personal goal concerning the Koharu and Homura had been to defang them, muzzle them as quietly and securely as they'd muzzled the Uchiha over the years. Seeking blood would have been foolish, killing Danzo had been necessary but anything further than that would have only backfired on Fukurou and his kin.

So instead he and Mikoto had chosen the slow poison as it were. Diversifying the family in civilian business and land ownership as a way to gain political power, taking command of Ne and turning it into a vital commodity that Konoha couldn't afford to alienate, all so that the Uchiha could weather the type of backroom backstabbing maneuvers that had laid them low in the past.

And if they threatened his children… well, putting down a rabid dog was just a matter of course.

The meeting ended with the Hokage quite happy to leave him in charge of Root 'farming' a crop of adept agents for Konoha's service. The three hundred or so operators involved in the trade wouldn't be adversely affected. They were Danzo's second to last crop of brainwashed kids, ones like Kana and Kensei; and the diehard fanatics like Fuu and Torune. Of course he was holding onto those and the Jūninriki. Fanatics were useful after all. The rest of the mal-adjusted child soldiers were now the Hokage's problem, their conditioning had already been tested against the best interrogators the Yamanaka had to offer. He could confidently say that they would die before betraying any secret that he didn't specifically order them to.

That left him with a force of about nine hundred strong, not counting the training cadre. As he left the building Fukurou idly wondered what the Advisors' faces would look like if they knew…

* * *

"_My father and grandfather died in battle as ninja. Self-sacrifice is a ninja's duty."_

He remembers faintly the tail end of an era of never-ending war. Family and friends lost to internecine warfare between rival clans in a conflict spanning all the known lands. Alliances were fleeting, not worth the paper they set down upon, lasting only as long as the next advantage and ending inevitably in betrayal…

"_Emotions lead one to hate… and hate leads one to conflict and war…"_

He remembers tales of family lost, of the bitter desire for revenge held tightly to one's chest. The pure hopelessness of a life where peace seems but a myth, a pleasant lie or daydream made up so as lend comfort to the ill and the dying. To be a shinobi, he then is taught, is to divest oneself of petty hatreds and grievances. One's allies might have at one time been a deeply loathed enemy. The past must remain the past while the present belongs to the living. Countless were the alliances ruined by the inability of just one vengeful person being unable to grasp this simple truth.

"_To be a shinobi is to sacrifice one-self, closing your eyes to the sunlight, distinguishing yourself in the shadows. That is the true form of ninja._"

In this way is Shimura Danzō molded. The meaning of his very name revealed the deeply held beliefs of his forebears, _For the Village, indeed._

That there might be peace, he believes, one must let go of their emotions. Love is held for the village, future generations being the duty of every shinobi to provide for the sake of continued strength. Base lusts must be tempered or shorn away. It is for this reason he so disdains Jiraiya and Tsunade, even going so far as to use them as cautionary tales.

"_Look at them, for all that they were and could have been, laid low by their innate weaknesses. Lust of the Fool, Love of the Drunkard."_

It is reason that Danzo champions, logic. To attain true peace there must be order. The maintenance of order is best accomplished by a unified military and political rule. The vehicle chosen to accomplish this goal is Konoha, the means by which his forebears grasped peace from the chaos of war. Thus it follows that by spreading and establishing the influence of Konoha as a military and political entity, peace and true lasting order can be maintained.

The current system of government is unstable. A foolish Daimyo or master of even the merest country or ninja village could quite easily trigger a chain of escalating conflicts as the Shinobi Secret World Wars proved. The system as it exists is at best a means of limiting the spread of chaos while the countries all selfishly jostle for power. He believes that it can only end in one of two ways logic dictates. The state of chaos and unending conflict that existed before, an outcome that he would sacrifice himself and his followers a thousand times over to prevent. Or it could end in the other outcome, with one of the vying nations attaining compete military dominance over the others. Logically, this would be a progression of the idea of creating Konoha and the goal of Root is to ensure that such a situation ends in Konoha's favor.

No matter how many corpses and fallen nations pave that path.

This is Danzo's past. It is the world that molded him into what he became, the _ Darkness of Shinobi_.

Through another night of tortured sleep for Fukurou, in the world that was a womb and the womb that was a world…

A King sat in Judgment, examining his chosen instrument.

_**The Sword must be tempered.**_

* * *

**AN: I've been rather too busy to write or post hence the hiatus. I do have more planned for this story though. You should really thank the people who PM'd me asking about it for this chapter.**


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